



J I 



^o/^y/.t ^M ':. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





;: 'liii 






FRONTISPIECE 



Tales of the Ocean. 




:• 




M 


_ 


— ""1 ' \ , 


sJL/ ~—~ ' r — 




Ife. 




■F&i-Hs^ ' - 


' '^f 


r 



STORIES OF THE OCEAN; 



OR, 



i&tm i^m ^»-|»rt«0 fjife. 



BY 

REV. JOHN SPAULDING, 

LATE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN SEAMEN'? 
FRIEND SOCIETY. 



" Lord, the earth is full of thy riches! 
So is this great and wide sea."— Psalm 104 ; 24, 25. 




NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

No. 5 30 Broadway. 

I860. n jf- 



.'btf- 



<Dl, 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860, by 

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 

printer & £>tereotgper, 
No. 26 Frankfort Street. 



A 



PREFACE. 



Rambling along the ocean-shore, at one 
time a smooth pebble has turned up ; at 
another a polished shell ; then a rare pearl ; 
and at the next step a precious gem. The 
within are a part of a twenty years' collection. 
Their aim is, to interest and instruct the 
mind ; to impress and improve the heart. 
If they shall accomplish this object, and 
prove " like apples of gold in pictures of 
silver," the pleasure of their discovery will 
be renewed, and the pains of collecting them 
will be amply rewarded. 

I asked the sea to yield its dead, — 

The beautiful and brave, 
The noble hearts, the lofty souls, 

In its dark chambers laid; — 
To give them up, and keep its gold 

And pearls and precious stones, 
Its argosies of wealth untold 

Within its boundless mines : — 

(3) 



PREFACE. 

Or if this cannot be, at least 

Cast up their dear remains, 
To sleep where sleeps their fathers' dust, 

In valleys, hills, and plains. 

But to my prayer, my earnest plea, 

With frowning lip and brow, 
The proud, the dark, mysterious sea 

Most sternly answered — No ! 
But richer gifts than these I give — 

Far nobler wealth impart ; 
Such acts and thoughts as ever live — 

The gems of mind and heart. 



CONTENTS. 



(Sim* of gra&jerg. 

PAGE. 

HAVE WE NO BOUSSARD HERE? 19 

HE WAS NOT A MAN TO QUAIL 13 

KEEP OFF, OR WE'LL SINK YOU 11 

MOTHER, I SEE DAYLIGHT 24 

MY CHILD! MY CHILD! 23 

NEVER LET THIS BE VISIBLE 13 

NO PROTECTION BUT HER FLAG 16 

PULL ON 15 

RUN OVER THE PIRATE 17 



n. 

ditms of Common Striae. 

A SAILOR'S REMEDIES 29 

ATHEISM IN A STORM 30 

CALL HIM SAILOR 80 

I SHALL JOIN HIS CHURCH 32 

LET GO! 36 

NAME ON THE MUSTER ROLL 29 

NE'ER DID I TOUCH THE CIRCEAN BOWL 31 

SOULS ON BOARD 34 

SWEAR AWAY, FRIEND 83 

WELL, WHO IS HE ? 34 

WHAT IS THE USE?...., 35 



(5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

III. 

ferns of JfiMitg. 

A GOOD MOTHER WHO HAS SO GOOD A SON.... 41 

A HEROIC AND FAITHFUL WIFE 51 

GOD MUST HA YE DONE IT 50 

I CAN TRY, SIR 45 

IF ANYTHING TURNS UP I CAN COME BACK AGAIN 42 
I WILL NOT GO AWAY TO BREAK MY MOTHER'S 

HEART. 44 

NEYER WAS THERE A HARDER STRUGGLE 4T 

THERE WAS JOHN ON HIS KNEES 49 

WHY HE DID NOT LET GO 46 

IV. 

ferns oi (§mzxaBxty. 

A DOUBLE TESTIMONIAL 67 

A WARM HEART THERE 59 

COME, TAKE A DIP 64 

EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS 64 

EIGHTY DOLLARS EXTRA 69 

FLING IT TO TOM 59 

HE SHA'N'T HAVE A CENT 67 

HIS OWN EXECUTOR 69 

I WOULD GIVE ONE-THIRD OF WHAT I HAD LEFT 65 

NEVER MIND, MY GOOD 'OMAN 60 

WHAT'S THE MATTER? 63 

V. 

ferns of feaixtafoje. 

A BIRD OF PARADISE 75 

FIRE 76 

HE CLASPED OUR FEET AND BEGAN TO KISS 

THEM 77 

NO! WE WILL CARRY HIM 80 



CONTENTS. < 

VI. 

(tfcms of ^ummtiig. 

BUT SPARK, OH, SPARE MY HELPLESS CHILD!.. 07 

COLERIDGE EN JACKET AND TROUSERS 90 

EXQUISITE ENJOYMENT 83 

HEROISM AND HUMANITY 87 

I WANT TO BUY ALL HANDS 86 

KEEP UP YOUB HEARTS, BOYS 85 

THE HEAET WAS TOO FULL 04 

VII. 

(Stnw of $)utg. 

A BIT OF A STORY 122 

AN APPROPRIATE DOXOLOGY 103 

A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE 147 

A STRAIGHT WAKE 130 

A THRONE OF GRACE IN THE FIELD 131 

BIBLE AUTHORITY 102 

CAME AS A LITTLE CHILD 116 

DIVINE AND HUMAN AGENCY 143 

DO YOU PRAY 188 

FAITH 101 

HELP NOW, LORD, OR I PERISH 133 

HE MET ME AT THE WHEEL 151 

HIS FATHER'S PRAYER FOUND IN THE OLD CHEST 111 

HOLD THERE! THAT IS JUST WHAT I WANT 152 

I SHALL SEE YOU OVER THERE 142 

I WANT A CHART 132 

I WISH THAT ALL MY CREW WERE METHODISTS 102 

LET (Jo THE ANCHOR 140 

LET US HAVE OLD HUNDREDTH 127 

LOOK ALOFT 105 

MY ANCHOR DOESN'T DRAG 117 

NOT ASH AM LD OF HIS FLAG 130 

NOT ASHAMED TO SHOW THEIR COLORS... 137 



8 CONTENTS. 

PEAYEE ANSWEEED 145 

EETIEEMENT IN A HAT 124 

THE CABIN-BOY'S PEAYEE 120 

THE DOLPHINS AND THE LOED'S DAY 136 

THE HAEBOE FOUND 106 

THE PIEATE AND THE DOVE 121 

THE PLACE OF PEAYEE 123 

THE SABBATH, AND THE COLOEED STEWAED'S 

PEAYEE 109 

THE SEAMAN'S CONSOLATION 144 

THE WAY TO GOD ILLUSTEATED 141 

THE WAY TO CHEEE THE LADS 108 

THEY MUST BE PEAYING FOE US ASHOEE 129 

WE AEE SAFE 118 

WHAT I NEEDED 150 

WHICH DIED THE EICHEST? 125 



VIII. 

fens ai |)rhtapk 



GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE 159 

MUST PEACTICE AS WELL AS PEEACH 163 

NO SABBATH SALUTE 165 

EEMEMBEE THE SABBATH DAY... 159 

EETUENED IN BALLAST 160 

THE SABBATH EEMEMBEEED 161 

WHYNOT? 162 



IX. 



A BOTTLE OF EUM 174 

A CUEEENT TO WAEDS THE CENTEE 172 

ABSOLUTELY SMOTHEEED 173 

COLD-WATEE MEN 175 

COLD-WATEE PEINCIPLES 170 

THE LAST DUCK 169 

USE OF LIQUOE 177 

WHAT KIND OF EEFEESIIMENT IS THAT 175 



Gems of Bravery. 

(9) 



"KEEP OFF, OR WE'LL SINK YOU." 

'N 1793 a large East India fleet lay at 
Spithead, when a serious mutiny oc- 
curred on board the Dutton. The 
2? officers, having lost their commander, 
were completely paralyzed. Captain 
Samson and Lieutenant Lucas, who had come 
on board to their assistance from His Majesty's 
ship the Regulus, had previously left, in the 
hope that their absence would restore quiet- 
ness and order. But the effect was the 
reverse. The mutineers were determined to 
carry the Dutton into a French port, or blow 
her up. At this critical juncture, amidst a 
fleet of boats hovering around the ship, the 
boat of the Melville Castle, bearing her gal- 
lant Captain, James Haldane, approached. 

(li) 



12 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

" Keep off, or well sink you ! " shouted the 
furious mutineers. Ordering his men to yeer 
round by the stern, in a few moments he stood 
on the quarter-deck. His first object was, to 
calm and reassure the officers ; and then, 
cutlass in hand, calmly reasoning with the 
men, and demanding what they hoped to 
effect in the presence of twenty sail of the 
line, he soon cleared the quarter-deck. 

Still observing much confusion, and ascer- 
taining where the chief danger lay, he sprang 
in a moment to the door of the powder mag- 
azine. Two of the crew, maddened with 
rage and rum, stood, one in the act of wrench- 
ing off the door> and the other with a shovel 
full of live coals ready to throw in ! Putting 
a pistol to the breast of the man with the 
iron bar, and telling him if he stirred he was 
a dead man, Captain Haldane, with an air 
which showed that resistance was out of the 
question, ordered them both in irons. The 
other ringleaders were soon secured, and 
order again ruled on board the Dutton. 



GEMS OF BRAVERY. 13 

"HE WAS NOT A MAN TO QUAIL." 

" Such a man,' 7 says his biographer, " was 
James Haklane. The habits he had acquired 
at sea, in battling with the elements and with 
the untamed energy of rude and fearless men, 
stood him in stead when called to contend 
for liberty of speech and the worship of 
God. . . . He was not a man to quail before 
priestly intolerance, or magisterial frowns. 
Dignified in manner, commanding in speed), 
fearless in courage, unhesitating in action, 
he everywhere met the rising storm with the 
boldness of a British sailor, and the courtesy 
of a British gentleman, as well as with the 
uprightness and the unoffensiveness of a true 
Christian." 

"NEVER LET THIS BE VISIBLE." 

When Admiral Lord Exmouth was Com- 
mander-in-chief in the North seas, in a private 
letter to a friend he described a scene which 
2 



14 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

transpired fifteen years before, on the rocks 
under the citadel at Plymouth. Date, Jan. 
26, 1796. The wrecked ship was crowded 
with troops and their families bound to the 
West Indies. 

" Why do you ask me to relate the wreck 
of the Dutton ? Susan (Lady Exmouth) and 
I were driving to a dinner-party at Plymouth, 
when we saw crowds running to the Hoe ; 
and , learning it was a wreck, I left the car- 
riage to take her on, and joined the crowd. 
I saw the loss of the whole five or six hun- 
dred was inevitable without somebody to 
direct them, for the last officer was pulled on 
shore as I reached the surf. I urged their 
return, which was refused ; upon which I 
made the rope fast to myself, and was hauled 
through the surf on board, — established or- 
der, and did not leave her until every soul 
was saved but the boatswain, who would not 
go before me. I got safe to the shore and so 
did he, and the ship went all to pieces ; but 
I was laid in bed for a week by getting under 



GEMS OF BRAVERY. 15 

the mainmast, which had fallen toward the 
shore ; and my back was cured by Lord 
Spencer's having conveyed to me by letter 
His Majesty's intention to dub me baronet. 
No more have I to say, except that I felt 
more pleasure in giving to a mother's arms 
a dear little infant only three weeks old, than 
I ever felt in my life before ; and both were 
saved. The struggle she had to intrust me 
with the bantling was a scene I cannot de- 
scribe ; nor need you, and consequently you 
will never let this be visible." 

"PULL OK" 

" Our boat's crew," said one of them, 
" fastened to a large sperm whale about three 
o'clock in the afternoon. The animal dived, 
and the harpoon drew. The wind was light, 
and he laid his course directly to windward. 
We succeeded after a long chase in fastening 
again ; but the stroke of the harpoon seemed 
only to redouble his vigor. He started off 



16 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

like an affrighted race -horse. Soon the 
shades of evening fell. There was time suf- 
ficient in that starry clime to reach the vessel. 
The alternative was presented of losing the 
whale, or being lost ourselves. The mate 
put the question to vote — ' Shall we pull on, 
or cut the line and row for the vessel? If 
we pull on, it is either the whale or a stove 
boat. 7 The answer was unanimous to pull 
on ! In twenty minutes the whale was dead. 
In the morning the vessel was a speck on the 
ocean. At mid-day the whale was along 
side." 

NO PKOTECTION BUT HEE FLAG. 

In 1799 Captain Tingey commanded the 
Ganges. It was in the time of the French 
war ; and the same year he was sent to watch 
the passage between Cuba and St. Domingo, 
when he took Le Vengeur, Le Rabateuse, 
UEugene, and L'Esperance. Being off Cape 
Nicola Mole, he was boarded by a boat be- 



GEMS OF BRAVERY. IT 

longing to the English frigate Surprise, and 
a demand made for all the Englishmen on 

board, and also for permission to examine 
the protections of the American seamen. 
Captain Tingey returned the following 
manly and noble answer : " A public ship 
carries no protection for her men but her 
flag. I do not expect to succeed in a contest 
with you ; but I will die at my quarters be- 
fore a man shall be taken from the ship." 
The crew gave three hearty cheers, hastened 
with alacrity to their quarters, and called 
for Yankee Doodle. The Captain of the 
Surprise, on hearing the determination of 
the Yankees, chose rather to pursue his 
course than to battle for dead men. 

"RUN OYER THE PIRATE." 

Admiral Wager, of the British navy, began 
his career upon the ocean as an apprentice 
to an honest old Quaker, Captain Hull, of 
Newport, 11. I. On the first trial of his 

2* 



18 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

metal, he gave proof of those qualities so 
essential to a seaman, and especially an offi- 
cer — coolness and courage. His master's 
ship, commanded by his master, was ap- 
proached by a piratical schooner, full of men 
thirsting for spoils and blood. Captain 
Hull's Quakerism would not allow him to 
defend himself or his vessel ; but young 
Wager was no Quaker, and determined that 
the guilt of his blood should not, if he could 
help it, be upon the pirates' heads. After a 
good deal of earnest entreaty, and a little 
respectable force, he got the good Captain 
into the cabin, and accidentally fastened him 
in. 

Taking command of the ship, he made 
hasty and efficient preparation to run over 
the pirate. Hull, getting up the companion- 
way, watched his movements with intense 
interest, and guessing his object, quietly said, 
" Charles, if thee intends to run over that 
schooner, thee must put the helm a little more 
to the starboard" Charles observed the 



f BRAVERY. 19 

dire< and 

ooner, a. *ate perished. 

Thu It procured for Cha 

itish navy, and thus laid the 
foundation of his fame and fortune. 



"HAVE WE NO B D HERE 

Ilav.' you ever rea tory of the Xor- 

man pilot ? It is found in the " Excursions 
in Normandy." In the night of the 21e 
ast, 1777. in a most tremendous storm, a 
1 attempted to turn into the harbor of 
Dieppe. Boussard, the pilot, who was never 
missing when the tempest raged, was on the 
pier, an that the Captain of the ship 

made several false manoeuvres, he called to 
him with his speaking trumpet, directing him 
what to do. and strove by gestures to render 
himself intelligible. Owing to the storm and 
the darkness his eff >ved unavailing. 

and the ship struck about thirty fathoms 



20 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

above the pier. Everybody, except Bous- 
sard, gave the crew up for lost. Determined 
to save them, he was going to tie a rope 
round his body in order to carry it to the 
ship : but his wife and children and friends 
surrounded, and besought him not to rush 
uselessly into certain destruction. Boussard, 
listening only to the voice of humanity, at 
length prevailed on them to take home his 
wife and children. Having tied one end of 
the rope around him, and fastened the other 
to the pier, he plunged into the sea. 

Twenty times did the waves hurl him back 
upon the beach, and as often did he plunge 
. again into the raging billows. A fresh wave 
flung him towards the ship, and he disap- 
peared beneath her. A general cry of hor- 
ror proclaimed his destruction ; but he had 
only dived, to lay hold of a sailor which the 
sea had swept from the deck, and whom he 
contrived to take senseless to the shore. A 
last attempt to reach the ship proved success- 
ful ; he climbed her side, and conveved to the 



r BRAYRBY. 21 

crew the rope by which, one after another, 
they were drawn ashore. But Boussard had 
not yet finished his glorious work. Exhau 
by his exertions, he was conducted by his 
friends to the nearest house. A gust of wind 
wafted to f l e shore the cry of a passenger 
who had been left behind, and Boussard soon 
learned that there was another fellow-crea- 
ture to save Tic felt his strength renewed ; 
and before those about him were aware, he 
had rushed out of the house, plunged again 
into the sea, and was battling with the same 
difficulties which he had before encountered, 
and which he overcame with the like success. 
The passenger was saved. Eight out of ten 
persons owed their lives to his courageous 
exertions. Louis XVI made him a present 
of a thousand francs, and settled on him a 
pension of three hundred. 

He was appointed keeper of the Pier Light- 
house — an office which has ever since been 
held by the Boussards, descending from father 
to son ; and not a year has passed unmarked 



22 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

by deeds worthy of the first possessor. Close 
to the parapet at the pier of Dieppe is a pole, 
covered with copper, to which is fastened a 
chain. Here, in every storm since 1777, 
whether in the night or day, a Boussard has 
taken his station, clinging to the chain, and 
served as a warning voice to those whom 
danger and a tempestuous sea pursued into 
the harbor. And though the waves broke 
over him — though they washed him from his 
post of honor — rising from their bosom, he 
would again give advice with his speaking- 
trumpet, in defiance of the sea and its efforts. 
Fifty times has a Boussard risked his life to 
save the lives of others. Napoleon ordered 
a house to be built for him close to the spot 
where the first Boussard performed his heroic 
achievement. He gave him the cross of 
honor. For more than half a century, when- 
ever there has been a vessel or a fellow-crea- 
ture to save, the people have asked, " Have 
we no Boussard here ? " 



GEMS ()V BRAVER? . 23 



"MY CHILD! MY CHILD!" 

When the " Great Fire" wa> raging in the 
city of New York on that bitter cold night 
Pec. 10, 1835, a woman was seen in the 
street, crying ' ; My child ! my child !" She 
had escaped from the upper story of a blazing 
building, leaving her child in bed. Among 
those who heard the cry was William H. 
Rindge, of Portsmouth, N. H. Let Mrs. 
Sigourney finish the story : 

" A wanderer from the wave, 

A sailor, marked her woe ; 
And in his bosom woke 

The sympathetic glow : — 
Quick up the burning stairs, 

With daring feet he flew, 
Though sable clouds of stifling smoke 

Concealed him from the view:—" 

But presently he reappeared, and laid the 
child safe in its mother's arms ! 

"The mother's speechless tears 

Forth like a torrent sped ; 
Yet e'er the throng could learn his name 
The generous tar had fled : 



24 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

Not for the praise of men 
He wrought this deed of love, 

But on a bright, unfading page 
'Tis registered above." 



"MOTHER, I SEE DAYLIGHT." 

When the schooner Oraloo was knocked 
. down, and the vessels which came to her 
relief had taken off, as they supposed, all 
who were alive, as Captain Ford and a sailor 
by the name of Abraham Heath were shoving 
from the wreck, Heath thought he heard a 
faint knocking, and said to the Captain, 
" There is some one alive on board of that 
vessel, and here goes to save her or go with 
her!" The boat was put back and he put 
on board. Through the hole previously cut 
in the deck, about sixteen inches square, he 
first descended into the cabin nearly full of 
water. Here, for the want of room and 
breath, he labored with almost incredible 
difficulty and perseverance in knocking away 
one partition after another of the rolling 



GEMS OP BRAVERY. 25 

vessel. At one time he lost his axe and was 
obliged to dive for it. At length he came to 
the cook's dish room, a small place four feet 
and a half one way, by three and a half the 
other, and four and a half high. Into this 
small room Mrs. Ford and her little boy had 
gone ; and when the vessel was capsized, 
the door was shut and held fast by the rush- 
ing water. As soon as the axe had made an 
opening, the first sound that greeted the 
noble sailor's ears was, " Mother, I see day- 
light" And now came his severest struggle, 
— to get them out alive ! His heroism was 
crowned with success, and deserves to be 
recorded in letters of gold for future admira- 
tion and imitation. 



3 



II. 
Gems of Common Sense. 




A SAILOR'S REMEDIES. 

)0R sea-sickness, stay on shore. For 
drunkenness, drink cold water, and 
repeat the prescription till you obtain 
relief. For the gout, board with the 
printer. To keep out of jail, get out 
of debt, and keep out of debt. To avoid 
trouble, give the land-sharks and the petti- 
foggers a wide berth. To please everybody, 
mind your own business. 



NAME ON THE MUSTER-ROLL. 

While the frigate United States was draw- 
ing near the Macedonian, a boy on board 
said to Decatur — " Commodore, I wish you 
would put my name on the muster-roll ! n 
" What for? " "That I may get a share of 
the prize-money. " It was done. After the 
3* (29) 



30 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

capture, the Commodore said, " Well, Ned, 
she's ours, and your share of the prize-money 
will be about $200 ; what will you do with 
it ? " " I'll send $100 to my mother, and the 
other shall send me to school," Not long 
after that boy was a midshipman. 



"CALL HIM SAILOR" 

Admiral Collingwood never used any 
coarse or violent language to the men him- 
self, nor permitted it in others. " If you do 
not know a man's name," he used to say, 
" call him sailor, and not ' you, sir,' and such 
other appellations ; they are offensive and 
improper." 

ATHEISM IN A STOEM. 

Among our passengers was one who pre- 
tended to disbelieve in the existence of God. 
On the evening of the 7th of July I had re- 
tired to my berth and was lost in unconscious 



GEMS OF COMMON SENSE. 31 

slumber, but soon I awoke amidst clamor 
and confusion. I hastily put on my clothes, 
and went on deck, where I beheld an appal- 
ling scene. The fury of the storm had fairly 
torn the bowsprit to pieces, and the sail was 
in complete rags : the cook's house had met 
the same fate, and fragments were strewed 
over the deck ; one of the boats was lost, 
and the waves were washing over the brig 
at a fearful rate, threatening to carry every- 
thing away. Twice was the brig on her 
beam-ends, but she soon righted. I was 
about going down in the cabin, when I was 
arrested with the cry of " Lord, have mercy 
on as/" in a low, fearful, agonized tone. I 
turned round, and, lo ! Mr. W., who, until 
now, had denied, but had just found out the 
existence of a God ! 



"NE'ER DID I TOUCH THE CIRCE AX BOWL." 

" I have followed the ocean/' said a dis- 
tinguished man, " in early life, in the capacity 



32 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

of a common sailor. I have on that element 
encountered some of the hardest gales that 
ever blew, as well as the coldest weather, 
perhaps, that ever made a poor seaman's 
heart shrink within him. In this course of 
life, which I pursued about five years, besides 
exposure to cold, rains, storms and tempests, 
I more than, once endured sickness, but never, 
during the whole period, did I taste a drop 
of ardent spirits." 

"High on the tott'ring mast I've stood, 
Above the raging wave and flood ; 
The tempest beating on my head ; 
The howling blast of winter dread, 
Which keenly pierced my shiv'ring frame, 
And all but quenched my spirit's flame ! 
But still, to raise my drooping soul, 
Ne'er did I touch the Circean bowl, 
Whose dregs in veins of others ran, 
And raised the brute— but sunk the man." 



"I SHALL JOIN HIS CHURCH." 

While the revival in W. was in progress, 
sectarian jealousy was awakened, and every 
effort made to draw away the converts. 



GEMS OF COMMON SENSE. 33 

One of the Bailors said, in reply to the ques- 
tion what church lie intended to join : 

M Mr. A has used every means to draw 

me into his church, and Mr. B has been 

equally anxious to draw me into his church. 

Mr. M has said nothing about church, but 

seemed only anxious to lead me to heaven. 
I shall join las church" 



" SWEAR AWAY, FRIEND." 

A sailor on one of the wharves in Boston 
was swearing away very boisterously, when 
one of the Society of Friends passing along, 
accosted liim quietly, and urged him to 
continue the exercise. Said he, ' ; Swear 
away, friend, — swear away till thee gets all 
that bad stuff out of thee, for thee can never 
go to heaven with that stuff in thine heart." 
The sailor paused, and with a look of aston- 
ishment and shame, bowed to the honest 
Quaker, and retired from the crowd which 
his turbulence had gathered round him. 



34 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

" SOULS ON BOARD." 

A minister of the gospel, on board a ves- 
sel sailing in a heavy sea along a dangerous 
reef of rocks, overheard a debate between 
some of the sailors and the man at the helm, 
as to whether they would be able to clear 
the rocks without making another tack, when 
the captain gave orders to put off and avoid 
all risk. 

On the minister expressing his gratifica- 
tion that they had so careful a commander, 
he replied, " It is necessary that I should be 
very careful, because I have souls on board. 
I think of my responsibility ; and should 
anything happen, through carelessness, I 
should have a great deal to answer for. I 
wish never to forget, sir, that souls are very 
valuable ! " 

"WELL, WHO IS HE?" 

As the Rev. Samuel Kilpin was preaching 
on a certain occasion, he spoke of the " Deity." 



GEMS OF COMMON SENSE. 35' 

A Bailor who was listening immediately start- 
ed from hifi seat, his elbows fully spread, ex- 
claiming, " Deity — well, who is lie? Is he 
our God Almighty ?" The attendants were 
about to turn him out ; but the minister stood 
reproved, and requested him to resume his seat 
w r ith the remark, " Yes, my friend, I did mean 
the Almighty God." The sailor rejoined, " I 
thought so, but was not quite sure ; I never 
heard that name before." The humbled min- 
ister replied, " You had a right to inquire ; I 
was to blame ; whilst delivering God's mes- 
sage of mercy and justice to immortal souls 
I ought not to have given my divine Master 
a name which prevented the message from 
being understood. " 



"WHAT IS THE USE?' 1 

A Universalist was appointed Chaplain in 
the United States Navy, and reported for 
duty on board a ship fitting for sea. His 



35 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

creed very soon became known to the sailors, 
and was freely discussed in their messes. 

" If we are all so good that we are going 
to heaven," said an old tar, " what is the use 
in overhauling one's sins ? It only gives a 
man a bloody sight of trouble for nothing." 

" If we are on the right tack," said an- 
other, " and must bring up at the right port, 
what is the use of preaching and praying 
about it?" 

" If we trust this doctrine and it don't turn 
out to be true, there'll be to pay," ex- 
claimed a third. 

These sentiments were shared in by the 
whole crew, and soon became known to the 
newly appointed Chaplain, who was wise 
enough to resign his commission. — Rev. Wal- 
ter Colton. 

LET GO ! 

The writer well remembers Monday eve- 
ning, April 7, 1845, when he stood on the 



GEMS OF COMMON SENSE. 37 

bank of the Hudson in a snow squall, wait- 
ing to take passage in the steamer Swallow 
for New York. It was about eight o'clock 

when she came, and, veering out of the chan- 
nel, went crash upon a rock ! Several lives 
were lost. Among those who jumped over- 
board, was one man with a bag containing 
fifteen hundred dollars in gold. Once, twice 
it sunk him, till he was compelled to let go. — 
See 1 Tim., 6 : 9. 



III. 
Gems of Fidelity. 

(39) 




" A GOOD MOTHER WHO HAS SO GOOD 
A SON." 

)UR1NG the war between England and 
France, an English sailor was taken, 
and, in his daring attempt to escape, 
Bed to the woods on the sea-shore, 
where with his knife he made a boat en- 
tirely of the bark of trees. From his lookout 
in a tree-top one day he descried, at no great 
distance, the flag of a British cruiser. Seiz- 
ing his boat on his back, he ran to the shore 
and committed himself to the mercy of the 
waves. He was pursued, arrested, and load- 
ed with chains. Both the sailor and his boat 
now became objects of much curiosity. Even 
the Emperor, hearing of the affair, sent for 
him. " You must," said Napoleon, " have a 
great desire to see your country again, since 
you could resolve to trust yourself on the 
open sea in so frail a bark. I suppose you 
4* (41) 



42 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

have left a sweetheart there." " No," said the 
sailor, " but a poor and infirm mother, whom 
I was anxious to see." " And you shall see 
her," answered Napoleon, giving orders at 
the same time to set him at liberty, and put 
into his hand a considerable sum of money 
for his mother ; adding, " she must be a good 
mother who has so good a son." 



" IF ANYTHING- TURNS UP I CAN COME 
BACK AGAIN." 

John Wolfenden received an honorable 
discharge from the U. S. Navy, with a view 
of his admission into the Naval Asylum at 
Philadelphia, in 1842. The Secretary of the 
Navy accompanied the discharge with a let- 
ter expressing high approbation of his con- 
duct and fidelity during a service of nearly 
forty-five years. 

He entered the navy in the year 1798, and 
continued in the service up to 1852, being 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 43 

then 77 years of age. At the time of his 
discharge he was attached to the ship North 
Carolina. Some time before, Captain Greg- 
ory had proposed to him, that, as lie was now 
getting old, it would be advantageous to 
him to have his discharge, and bo admitted 
to the Naval Asylum in Philadelphia, where 
he would be well taken care of during the 
remainder of his life. The old tar, who had 
been in active service ever since he joined 
the navy, and had been engaged in action 
many times, reflected a moment, and, after 
hitching up his unmentionables two or three 
times, replied, " I don't think, Captain, as 
how it would look well for me to leave ac- 
tive sarvice till after the Boundary question 
is settled, because, you know, if there should 
be a war, I should not like to have it said 
that I skulked." 

Soon after it had been announced that 
Lord Ashburton had concluded the treaty 
settling the Boundary question, the old vet- 
eran made application to Captain Gregory 



44 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

for his discharge, saying, that " now the 
Boundary question is settled, I thought I 
might as well go ; and besides, you know, 
Captain/' said he, " if anything turns up I 
can come back again." 



"I WILL NOT GO AWAY TO BREAK MY 
MOTHER'S HEART." 

Young George Washington was about to 
go to sea as midshipman ; everything was ar- 
ranged ; the vessel lay out opposite his father's 
house ; the little boat had come on shore 
to take him off, and his whole heart was bent 
on going. After his trunk had been carried 
down to the boat, he went to bid his mother 
farewell, and he saw the tears bursting from 
her eyes. However, he said nothing to her ; 
but he saw that his mother would be dis- 
tressed if he went, and perhaps never be hap- 
py again. He just turned round to the ser- 
vant and said, " Go and tell them to fetch 




"I CAN TRY, SIR.' 



Tales of the Ocean. 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 45 

my trunk back : I will not go away to break 
ray mother's heart.' 7 His mother was struck 
witli his decision, and said to him, " George, 
God has promised to bless the children that 
honor their parents, and I believe he will 
bless you." 



"I CAN TRY, SIR." 

A few years ago a fire broke out in the 
hold of an American steamer, at 4 o'clock P. 
M., and ten miles from shore. John May- 
nard, an old pilot, was at the helm. At one 
time the fire seemed extinguished ; but sud- 
denly it broke out again, when the excited 
passengers gathered around the wheel-house, 
teazing the pilot with improper and useless 
questions : to which he replied, " Less talk- 
ing and more praying : better for us and none 
the worse for the boat." 

"Mr. Maynard," said the Captain, " keep 
her S. W. ; we must go ashore anywhere." 

The flames soon drove the passengers and 



46 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

sailors forward, leaving John Maynard, 
cut off from them by smoke and fire, at the 
helm alone. 

" Can you hold on five minutes longer, Mr. 
Maynard ?" shouted the Captain. " / will 
try, sir f" was his noble reply. 

As the flames came nearer, singing his 
hair, and rendering it impossible for him 
to stand erect at his post, he still held the 
boat to her course by alternating first the 
right, then the left hand, till he felt her keel 
grate on the shore, and heard the Captain 
say, " Save the women first!" 

All escaped except John Maynard, the old 
and faithful pilot. 



WHY HE DID NOT LET GO. 

When the transport ship Empire struck 
near Fowl Key, but one man was lost, and 
he was steering the ship. He attempted to 
save her by putting the helm hard down ; 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 47 

but when nearly hard down the rudder struck 
the rocks, carrying him over and under the 
wheel several times, at each revolution the 
handles of the wheel tearing his thigh most 
fearfully. Indeed, the flesh was literally 
torn off from the knee to the hip. When 
about to die from his injuries, Lieutenant 
Elder asked the brave man why he did not 
let go. His noble reply was, " Four hundred 
lives are more valuable than one." i 

" NEVER WAS THERE A HARDER 
STRUGGLE." 

The clipper ship Trade Wind, Captain 
Nathaniel Webber, with a crew of thirty 
men, and eight missionaries and their fami- 
lies, as passengers, left New York, Nov. 13, 
1 852, for San Francisco. On the morning 
of the 21st day out, when about four hundred 
and fifty miles from land ; she was discov- 
ered to be on fire in her cargo. A hole was 
cut through the deck, and bales of goods 
hoisted out to make room for the sailors to 



48 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

go down, one at a time, and turn through a 
hose from the force-pump a stream of water 
on the burning mass. One by one they fell, 
suffocated and insensible from the carbonic 
acid gas ; and as soon as one was dragged 
out, another, no less bold, took his place and 
shared his fate, till each of the sixty had 
taken his turn — and some of them five or six 
times — in the suffocation of dying, and the 
convulsive agonies of coming to life again. 
"At one time," says an eye-witness, "I counted 
sixteen of these generous fellows lying to- 
gether on the deck. As soon as one was 
recovered sufficiently to work, he would go 
back and offer his services again." 

" Thus," adds another, " several times did 
some of them throw themselves down into 
the smoking, gaseous hold, as if determined 
to extinguish the fire, or die in the attempt. 
Never in any battle was courage more fully 
tried. Never was there a harder struggle 
than this day exhibited." And never was 
there sincerer joy over a victory. 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 49 

"THERE WAS JOHN ON Ul* KNEES." 

A shipmaster in New York, having dis- 
charged hia crew and cargo, wanted a trusty 
man to take charge of his ship during a few 

days' absence in the country. John , a 

sailor, was recommended . But he had no con- 
fidence in John, or any other sailor ; he be- 
lieved they would all steal when opportunities 
offered. However, as he could do uo better, 
after having put everything possible under 
lock and key, he duly installed John as ship- 
keeper. Before leaving the city next morn- 
ing, he thought he would take an early peep 
at his ship. So he quietly stepped on board, 
and, unperceived, carefully opened the cabin 
door. There was John on his knees, with 
the Bible open before him ! The Captain as 
carefully closed the door, and waited till 
John appeared, when he thus addressed him : 
" John " — handing him at the same time a 
bunch of keys from his pocket — " John, you 
may open all those drawers and trunks, and 
5 



50 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

air those things. John, keep a sharp look- 
out for those scamps along the wharves. 
John, keep everything snug ; 111 be back on 
Tuesday." 



"GOD MUST HAVE DONE IT." 

"When you saw me here in February," 
said Captain M., to the seamen's chaplain at 
Eio de Janeiro, " I had a black assistant 
steward, whose conduct was so outrageous 
that I had a good mind to drop him here. 
But I concluded to keep him. I gave him a 
most severe talking, and had scarcely any- 
thing to do with him ; in short, I saw but little 
of him for a long time. At length I was 
attracted by his neatness, cleanliness, and 
steadiness. What's got into the boy, thought 
I to myself. I began to watch him. I found 
him going into the cabin oftener than I wish- 
ed. I did not like that. One day I went 
down unexpectedly, and, lo and behold, I 
found him in an out-of-the-way corner, down 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 51 

on his knees praying ! I believe lie was con- 
verted by the grace of God. There had been 
no one to talk with him, he could not read, 
and God must have done it. It changed 
the whole course of his life. He instantly 
set about learning to read, and was faithful 
to me. At Melbourne, where sailors were 
daily deserting ships to go to the mines, 
where even my second mate stole a boat and 
ran away, this boy stuck to the ship, and was 
a pattern of goodness, obedience, and fidel- 
ity.' 7 

A HEROIC AND FAITHFUL WIFE. 

In August, 1856, the ship Neptune's Car, 
Captain Joshua A. Patten, sailed from New 
York for San Francisco. His young wife, 
but twenty years of age, who had been with 
him a previous voyage of seventeen months, 
now accompanied him. During the previous 
voyage, by way of amusement, she had some- 
times aided her husband in his nautical ob- 
servations, working up the time from the 



52 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

chronometers, and keeping the reckoning of 
the ship. Little did she think how soon her 
practical seamanship would be put to the 
test. As they were nearing the Straits of 
Magellan, her husband was taken with a dis- 
ease which developed in a brain fever. When 
he could navigate his ship no longer, nor 
even give personal orders, he found to his 
dismay that his first officer was utterly in- 
competent to take charge, and that not an 
officer on board was qualified to take the 
ship into port. The first mate was anxious 
to run the vessel into Valparaiso, but this 
the Captain earnestly forbade, or any other 
South American port, lest the crew might 
desert, and the cargo be destroyed before 
the consignees could send for the vessel. In 
this emergency, Mrs. Patten, described to be 
"of medium stature, delicate complexion, 
black eyes, and much feminine softness and 
grace," assumed the command of the ship ! 
The pastime of the former voyage was no 
play now. Between working up the intricate 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 53 

calculations of nautical observations, making 
entries in the log-book, and accurately trac- 
ing out the position of the ship on the chart ; 
and studying medicine to know how to treat 
intelligently her sick husband, the whole wo- 
man and wife were developed. She shaved 
his head, applied soothing remedies, and 
eventually succeeded in carrying him through 
the crisis of his complaint. In the mean 
time the rough sailors obeyed " the little 
woman," as they called her, with a will. 

About a week after she took the command, 
the mate wrote her a letter, reminding her 
of the dangers of the coast, and of the great 
responsibilities she had assumed, and offered 
to take charge of the ship. She replied that, 
as in the opinion of her husband he was unfit 
for the office, she could not consent. Stung 
by this rebuff, he tried to stir up the crew to 
mutiny against her ; but she called the other 
mates and sailors aft, and appealed to them 
to stand by her in this hour of trial. This 
they resolved to do, to a man ; and it was 



54 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

most pleasing to witness the cheerful and 
prompt alacrity with which the noble fellows 
obeyed her orders. 

By this time the ship was nearly up to the 
latitude of Valparaiso ; the Captain was par- 
tially recovered, though too weak for any 
mental or physical exertion, and the mate, 
under promise of good behavior, was par- 
tially performing duty. But she discovered 
that he was steering the ship off her course, 
and making for Valparaiso, — and apprised 
her husband of the fact. He called the mate 
before him to explain his conduct, when the 
mate replied that he could not keep the ship 
nearer her course. The Captain then had 
his cot moved to a part of the cabin where 
he could keep his eye on the compass, and 
found the mate still steering for Valparaiso. 
To put a stop to further annoyance from this 
source, he ordered all hands aft, when he 
deposed the first mate and put the second in 
his place. Soon after he had a relapse, and 
for twenty-five days before reaching port, 



GEMS OF FIDELITY. 58 

was totally blind. At length, after a voyage 
of one hundred and twenty days, Mrs. Cap- 
tain Patten brought the ship safely into the 
Bay of San Francisco. Thence, with her sick 
husband, she came by steamer to New York, 
and home to Boston. In consideration of 
her heroism and fidelity, the Underwriters in 
New York addressed her a handsome letter, 
inclosing a present of One Thousand Dol- 
lars. 



IV. 

Gems of Generosity. 

(57) 




" FLING IT TO TOM." 

)V> T boats were sent out to relieve a 
vessel in distress. The fury of the 
tempest upset the boat containing 
three sailors, and one of them sunk. 
To one of the two floating sailors a 
rope was thrown from the other boat, but lie 
refused it, crying out, " Fling it to Tom — he's 
just ready to go down ; I can stand it a 
little longer." They did so, and soon saved 
them both. 

"A WARM HEART THERE." 

A few years ago two vessels were sunk on 
the coast of Ireland, in the same gale, and 
near to each other. At the mast-head of the 
one, Henry Snow, Esq., of Larkfield, County 
of Kilkenny, found a refuge from a watery 
grave ; and a sailor at the other. The 

(59) 



60 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

weather being very cold, Mr. Snow became 
benumbed and exhausted, and was making 
up his mind to yield to his fate. The sailor 
seeing him failing, cried out, " Avast ! not so 
fast, my hearty ; 111 be with you presently." 
Throwing himself into the sea, he swam over 
to him. " Hold on," said he, " with one hand, 
and thrust the other into my bosom . There's 
a warm heart there ; I'll warrant you it will 
soon warm." Thus by alternately warming 
one hand in the sailor's bosom, and holding 
on with the other, Mr. Snow survived, till the 
long-looked-for relief came to them both. 

" NEVER MIND, MY GOOD 'OMAN." 

The " Boston Herald" tells the following 
characteristic story : " A poor widow, who 
occupied two rooms in the lower part of 
Commercial street, since the death of 
her husband, about six months since, has 
been compelled to earn a living for herself 
and family of young children by taking in 



IMS OF GENEROSITY. Gl 

washing ; and with all her industry and 
economy, her quarterly rent-bill became due 

before Bhe could scrape enough together to 
discharge it. Her landlord became impor- 
tunate. She I lor time. He gave her 
two days, s1 hat if her rent was not 
then paid every stick of her furniture should 
be put out of door-. 

"The time arrived, when, agreeable to 
promise, his lackeys were sent down, and the 
threat was begun to be put in execution. 
The poor woman prayed the unfeeling land- 
lord to desist in his purpose, but her prayers 
were in vain. At length, giving up entirely 
to despair and wounded pride, she seated 
herself upon her forlorn bed, with her chil- 
dren crying around her. At this moment 
two jolly American tars happened by, and, 
espying the work going on, the door open, 
and the wretched woman and her children 
weeping, immediately stopped their course, 
and began to reconnoitre. 

" ' I say, shipmate/ cried one, ' there is 
6 



62 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

some foul play going on in these waters ; let's 
overhaul the craft ! 7 

" ' Aye, aye, 7 replied the other ; ' the young 
7 oman has hoisted signals of distress ; her 
pumps are going in right earnest ; lets give 
her a long hail. 7 

"The tars called the woman to them, and 
from her soon learned the whole of her story. 

" ■ Well, now, shipmate, if that land-pirate 
hadn 7 t ought to be lathered with hot tar, 
scraped with a rusty hoop, and then keel- 
hauled, for laying his grappling-irons on her 
few loose spars that are scattered about this 
wreck. Never mind, my good 7 oman, keep 
your spirits up, and we 7 ll set you in the right 
course, with plenty of ballast and provisions. 
I say, you land-lubbers, just belay there upon 
them things — we'll be responsible for the 
damage. 

" * How much do you owe this land-pirate ? 7 
The woman told him the amount, when Jack 
took from his wallet the same in hard cur- 
rency, paid the bill, and made the woman a 



GEMfl OF GENEROSITY. 03 

present of a handful of silver ; while his ship- 
mate, in the meantime, went to a butc: 
shop, near by, and brought back a large joint 
of meat for the dinner of herself and poor 
children. They left, after receiving the poor 
woman's blessings and wishes for their pros- 
perity, whistling through the streets as 
though nothing had happened." 



" WHAT'S THE MATTER?" 

A sailor, just returned from the sea, and 
paid off, met a brother sailor with a wooden 
leg in one of our streets, and thus accosted 
him : " Well, shipmate, what's the matter with 
your starboard limb ? '' " Oh, I have been 
disabled, and laid up as a poor hulk." 
" Well, as you have but one leg, and I have 
two, and you need a helping hand, here, take 
tins" handing him two gold pieces — about 
five dollars — and passed on. 



64 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

"EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS." 

On the 5th of July, 1841, Daniel White- 
horn, second gunner on board the U.S. ship 
Vincennes, in the performance of his duty in 
firing a salute, lost the use of his left hand, 
and was thus disabled from obtaining a live- 
lihood by future sea-service. This man had 
faithfully served his country in the navy 
fourteen years ; during which time he had 
supported his infirm and highly respectable , 
mother. His shipmates now took his case 
into a generous consideration. The officers 
and crews of the Vincennes, the brig Por- 
poise, and the schooner Flying Fish, imme- 
diately subscribed and deposited in the Sea- 
men's Bank for Savings, New York, eight 
hundred dollars to his credit, and for his 
benefit. 

" COME, TAKE A DIP." 

A sailor, on presenting a check for pay- 
ment at one of the banks in New York, said 



IROSITY. 65 

he wanted none of their paper, but the " round 
ones." So the round ones were counted out 
to him, and for the want of a handkerchief 
were scraped into his tarpaulin and stowed 
away under his arm. With his silver load 
he started down the street, and presently met 
a brother sailor with a woe-begone counte- 
nance. 

u What cheer, shipmate ?" " Cheer, ho !" 
and he went on with his sorrowful tale, till 
interrupted by a sunny view of the tarpaulin, 
and the exhortation, " Come, shipmate ! come, 
take a dip." 



"I WOULD GIVE ONE-THIRD OF WHAT 
I HAD LEFT." 

The ship Astracan, Captain Wippen, of 
Portland, Me., was dismasted in a violent 
hurricane, Oct. 3, 18-13, on her passage from 
Boston to New Orleans, in lat. 33° N. and 
Ion. 68° W. Her decks were swept of every- 
thing. On the morning after the disaster 
6* 



66 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

there was no water on board, save what there 
was in a few barrels of cranberries among 
the cargo. For six days twenty-one souls 
quenched their thirst from eating cranber- 
ries, and what little water they were packed 
in. On the 9th a vessel hove in sight to the 
windward, and came so near that a man was 
seen, spy-glass in hand, standing on her quar- 
ter-deck, and must have seen the Astracan's 
flag of distress. Yet the brute stood on his 
course, leaving the distressed to their fate. 
The same day the barque Sarah, Captain 
Foster, from Boston for Matanzas, hove in 
sight, and came to their relief. She took off 
four of the crew and one passenger, and sup- 
plied those who remained to work the disa- 
bled ship into port, with three casks of water 
— one-third of all he had. 

In reply to a passenger, who remonstrated 
with Captain Foster for his great liberality 
in giving away so much, and asked what he 
would do if he fell in with another vessel in 
distress for want of water, the noble man, 



GEMS OF GENEROSITY. 07 

with Bailor-like ener give 

one-it ' I had left: 1 

"HE SHAN'T HAVE A CENT." 

In the town of S , the good ladies 

started the project of making their minister 
the present of a new suit of clothes. Among 
those zealous in the work was the mother of 
a sailor absent at sea. Before a sufficient sum 
was raised, he returned with his wages in his 
pocket, when his mother boarded him again 
and again for a donation. Each time he met 
her importunity with a shake of the head, 
and an emphatic not a cent She remonstrat- 
ed, and asked the reason. " Why, mother," 
said he, " I've now been home six weeks, and 
he has not prayed for sailors once, and he 
sha'nH have a cent." 

A DOUBLE TESTIMONIAL. 

The " Charleston Courier," some time since, 
related the daring and generous act of a 



68 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

sailor named James Booth, in plunging after 
a lady who had fallen overboard from the 
packet ship New York, in that harbor, and 
sustaining her till they were both rescued by 
a boat. 

On his reaching shore, a purse of twelve 
dollars was made up by the by-standers, and 
presented to him as a tribute to his gallantry 
and humanity ; and thereupon the generous 
fellow immediately distributed the amount 
among some negroes, attached to a canoe, 
who had relieved both him and the lady 
from their perilous situation, before the ship's 
boat despatched to their aid had reached 
them, saying, " But for these poor fellows, 
both of us might have gone to the bottom." 

At the request of several gentlemen, adds 
the u Courier," another purse is about to be 
made up, to present the gallant tar with a 
medal, in double testimonial of his intrepid- 
ity and generosity. 



GEMS OF GENEROSITY. 80 

EIGHTY DOLLARS EXTRA. 

As the ship Rainbow, of New York, 
weighed anchor in the Bay of Canton, Cap- 
tain Land addressing his men said, " My lads, 
if you will put this ship alongside the wharf 
in Now York in eighty days, I will give you 
eighty dollars extra." Never did a ship ride 
the waves better. She accomplished her 
task, and when the men were paid their extra 
eighty, they voted to give $15 to the New 
York Bible Society ; §25 to the " Floating 
Church of our Saviour f and $40 to the Rev. 
Henry Chase, to be applied to the relief of 
destitute families of seamen. 

HIS OWN EXECUTOR. 

" Fair boy ! the wanderings of thy way 
It is not mine to trace, 
Through buoyant youth's exultant day, 
Or manhood's bolder race." 

Yet it is mine to record a single incident 
of his sea-faring life, and some of his conse- 



70 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

quent generous acts. He had been on the 
ocean about twenty years, when, as he lay in 
his berth one night, in the gulf of Mexico, his 
thoughts turned to the perils of his calling, 
the merciful preservations he had experienced, 
his present condition as an unrenewed sin- 
ner, and the fearful awards of the world to 
come. " What," thought he, " if my ship 
should go down to-night, carrying me unpre- 
pared before God !" Thought begat convic- 
tion, — conviction so intense as to bring him 
from his berth to his Bible, and upon his 
knees with the cry, " God be merciful to me 
a sinner." The result was the possession 
of that " peace of God which passeth all 
understanding," and the entire consecra- 
tion of his all to God. Shortly after, he 
retired from the sea to reside in the State 
of Illinois, where his large, generous acts 
commenced in erecting the first church 
which adorned the banks of the upper Mis- 
sissippi. He next conceived the idea of 
founding a Female Seminary, to be to the 



GEMS OF GENEROSITY. 71 

West what 1ft. Holyoke and other similar 
institutions were to the East. Having com- 
pleted it at an expense of fifty-three thousand 

rs, he deeded it sill to a Board of Trus- 
tees, to be used forever for the purpose of fe- 
male education, reserving no interest or ex- 
clusive control in it to himself. Four years 
ago the Seminary had graduated about thir- 
teen hundred young ladies. Thus has Captain 
Benjamin Godfrey become " like a watered 
garden, and like a spring of water, whose 
waters fail not." One day, in answer to 
a friend who alluded to the immense good 
the Monticello Female Seminary had al- 
ready accomplished, witli grateful emotion 
he remarked, " How much better it is, if a 
7nan has anything to give, to do it while he 
lives, that he may see its workings while he 

. than to lay it up for executors to give af- 
ter he is dead and gone." 



V. 



Gems of Gratitude. 



GV 




A BIRD OF PARADISE. 

BAILOR, who had received some 
of kindness from a lady in New 

York, said to her on leaving for 
-fS^ China, " Til remember you, and show 

you when I come back that a sailor 
can be grateful." About two years after, he 
stood at the same door with a beautiful bird 
of Paradise in his hand, inquiring for that 
lady. " Will you give this to Mrs. S. ? w said 
he to the servant ; " and tell her I got it in 
Hong Kong ; and tell her I remember — w 
14 But Mrs. S. is dead ;" — " I remember — 
dead? You don't say she's dead!' 7 bursting 
into tears. ; " Well, take it, — I can't carry it 
away : I brought it from China on purpose 
for her. Oh, is she dead !" 

(75) 



76 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

"FIRE!" 

Campbell, in his letters from the South, 
relates the following : " An Algerine Cap- 
tain had been* taken during a piratical ex- 
cursion by a French vessel, whose commander 
had treated him with marked humanity and 
kindness during his captivity, and had at last 
restored him to liberty. The Algerine rec- 
ognized this officer in the person of one of 
the victims they were in the act of tying to 
the cannon's mouth. He instantly flew to 
the Dey, implored for the Frenchman's par- 
don, and stated the motive which made him 
sue for his life. The ferocious Dey refused 
to listen to him, and ordered the cannon to 
be fired. The Algerine unhesitatingly threw 
himself upon the Frenchman, embraced 
him, and, closely pressing him in his arms, 
turned to the gunner and calmly said, "Fire ! 
Since I cannot save my benefactor, I will 
die with him." 

All the spectators were affected at the 



GEMS OF GRATITUDE. 



sight ; — the gunner withdrew — and the peo- 
ple rescued the Frenchman in spite of the 
Dey, who, though unmoved at the scene, was 
unable to oppose any resistance. 



" HE CLASPED OUR FEET AND BEGAN 
TO KISS them:' 

Dr. Parker, in his " Invitations to true 
happiness,' 7 gives the following thrilling sto- 
ry as it was related to him by the mate. il I 
was at sea in the broad Atlantic as w r e now 
are. It was just such a bright moonlight 
night as this, and the sea was quite rough. 
The Captain had turned in, and I was upon 
watch, when suddenly there was a cry of ' A 
man overboard f To go out in a boat was 
exceedingly dangerous. I could hardly make 
up my mind to command the hands to expose 
themselves. I volunteered to go myself, if 
two more would accompany me. Two gen- 
erous fellows came forward, and in a few 



78 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

moments the boat was lowered, and we were 
tossed upon a most frightful sea. 

" As we rode upon the mountain wave, we 
discovered the man upon a distant billow. 
We heard his cry, and responded, ' Coming 1' 
As we descended into the trough of the sea, 
we lost sight of the man, and heard nothing 
but the roar of the ocean. As we rose on 
the next wave, we saw him again, and dis- 
tinctly heard his call. We gave him anoth- 
er word of encouragement, and pulled with 
all our strength. At the top of each successive 
wave we saw and heard him, and our hearts 
were filled with encouragement ; as often, in 
the trough of the sea, we almost abandoned 
the hope of success. The time seemed long, 
and the struggle was such as men never make 
but for life. We reached him just as he was 
ready to sink from exhaustion. When we 
had drawn him into the boat he was helpless 
and speechless. Our minds now turned to- 
wards the ship. She had rounded to, but, 
exhausted as we were, the distance between 



GEMS OF GRATITUDE. 7 ( .» 

us and the vessel was frightful. One 

false movement would have filled our boat 
and consigned us all to a watery grave. 
Yet we readied the vessel, and were drawn 
safely upon the deck. We were all exhaust- 
ed, but the rescued man could neither speak 
nor walk ; yet lie had a full sense of his con- 
dition. He clasped our feet and began to 
kiss them. We disengaged ourselves from 
his embrace. He then crawled after us, and 
as we stepped back to avoid him he followed 
us, looking up at one moment with smiles and 
tears, and then, patting our wet footprints 
with his hands, he kissed them with an 
eager fondness. I never witnessed such a 
scene in my life. I suppose if he had been 
our greatest enemy, he would have been per- 
fectly subdued by our kindness. The man 
was a passenger. During the whole remain- 
ing part of the voyage he showed the deep- 
est gratitude ; and when we reached the port 
he loaded us with presents." 



80 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 



"NO! WE WILL CAKRY HIM." 

An immense concourse of people attended 
the funeral of Father Eastburn, the seamen's 
preacher, in Philadelphia. Among others 
there was a large procession of sailors, wear- 
ing crape on their arms. One of them, ap- 
proaching the hearse-driver, asked, " What 
are you to receive for your services to-day?" 
On being told, the sailor replied, " Here is 
your money. Do you suppose we are going 
to let our Father be carried to his grave by 
a horse ? No ! we will carry him on our 
own shoulders." And Father Eastburn was 
carried to his grave on the shoulders of those 
for whom he had lived, and wept, and prayed. 



VI. 

Gems of Humanity. 

(31) 




" EXQUISITE ENJOYMENT." 

> HEN the British tender, the " Black 
Joke," boarded the slaver, the 
yd scene which presented itself was 
truly heart-rending. Says an of- 
ficer, who was an eye-witness : 
" Crowded to excess below— frightened by 
the cannonading — without water to drink — 
and almost without air during the engage- 
ment, death had already' begun to make fear- 
ful ravages among them. In two days from 
the period of capture thirty of them had paid 
the debt of nature. Immediately after the 
vessel was secured, the living were found sit- 
ting on the heads and bodies of the dead and 
dying below. Witnessing their distress, the 
captors poured a large quantity of water into 
a tub, for them to drink out of ; but beino; un- 
used to such generosity, they merely imag- 

(83) 



84 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

ined that their usual scanty daily allowance 
of half a pint per man was about to be served 
out ; and when given to understand that they 
might take as much of it, and as often, as they 
felt inclined, they" seemed astonished, and 
rushed in a body with headlong eagerness to 
dip their parched and feverish tongues into 
the refreshing liquid. Their heads became 
wedged in the tub, and were with some dif- 
ficulty got out, not until several were nearly 
suffocated in its contents. The drops that 
fell on the deck were lapped and sucked up 
with most frightful eagerness. Upon jugs 
being obtained, and the water handed round 
to them, in their precipitation and anxiety to 
obtain relief from the burning thirst which 
gnawed their vitals, they madly bit ^the ves- 
sels with their teeth and champed them into 
atoms. 

" Then to see the look of gratification, 
the breathless unwillingness to part with the 
vessels, from which, by their glistening eyes, 
they seemed to draw such exquisite enjoy- 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. 85 

ment ! Only half satisfied, they clung to 
them, though empty, as if they were more 
dear, and had afforded more earthly bliss, 
than all the nearest and dearest ties of kin- 
dred and affection. " 

"KEEP UP YOUR HEARTS, BOYS." 

About half-past nine at night, on the 4th 
of March, 1838, the American ship Com- 
merce, Captain Perry, of and from Charles- 
ton, bound to Liverpool, fell in with the 
Elizabeth Caroline, of St. Stephens, N. B., 
waterlogged, and her crew in the most piti- 
able condition. For twenty-three days they 
had been on the forecastle of their vessel, 
lashed to the windlass, exposed to every sea, 
with barely sufficient food to sustain life, and 
only two gallons of water remaining. As 
soon as she was discovered, Captain Perry 
shortened sail, wore round, and went close 
alongside. Hearing their cries, the Captain, 
passing round them two or three times dur- 
8 



86 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

ing the night, hailed them cheeringly : 
" Keep up your hearts, boys ; there is too 
much sea to board you now, but I will never 
leave you till I take you off ! " And nobly 
did he fulfil his pledge, keeping close to the 
vessel two nights and a day, till the sea went 
down, and the sufferers were rescued. 



" I WANT TO BUY ALL HANDS." 

Soon after the close of the long French 
war in Europe, a boy was standing on one 
of the bridges at London, with a number of 
small birds in a cage for sale. A sailor, who 
was passing, observed the little prisoners 
fluttering about the cage, peeping through 
the wires, and manifesting an eager desire to 
gain their liberty. He stood for some time, 
looking at the birds, apparently lost in 
thought. At length, addressing the boy, he 
said, " How much do you ask for your birds ?" 

"Sixpence apiece, sir," was the reply. 

" I don't ask how much apiece," said the 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. 87 

sailor ; M how much the lot? I want to buy 
all hands. 77 

The boy began his calculations, and found 
they came to six shillings and sixpence. 

"There is your money," said the sailor, 
handing out the cash, which the boy received 
with evident satisfaction at his morning's 
trade. 

Xo sooner was the bargain settled, than 
the sailor opened the cage-door and let all 
the birds fly away. 

The boy, looking quite astonished, ex- 
claimed, " What did you do that for, sir ? 
You have lost all your birds." 

" I will tell you," said the sailor, " why I 
did it. I was shut up three years in a 
French prison, as a prisoner of war, and I 
am resolved never to see anything in prison 
that I can make free." 

" HEROISM AND HUMANITY." 
If the question were asked, Which is the 



88 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

greater heroine, the Prussian " guardian 
angel " of Tillau, or the Scottish " poor old 
widow" of the Island of Rona? — the former 
would doubtless bear off the palm. But if the 
question were submitted to the " guardian 
angel " herself — Katherine Klenfeldt — which 
is the more humane? — she would, no doubt, 
wreathe the palm into a crown to adorn the 
brow of the widow of Rona. Katherine 
Klenfeldt is also a seaman's widow. Upwards 
of twenty years she made long sea-voyages 
with her husband ; and since his death 
she has devoted her life to the noble and 
perilous task of carrying aid to the drown- 
ing. The Baltic has a long line of coast, 
but owing to its low, shallow shore, it has 
few good harbors ; and its navigation is 
attended with great loss of life. Many a 
crew has perished in sight of Pillau. 

Whenever a storm arises, whether by day 
or night, she embarks in her boat and quits 
the harbor in search of wrecks. When at 
the age of forty-seven, she had already res- 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. S ( J 

cued upwards of three hundred individuals 
from certain death. She is described as pos- 
sessing an athletic figure and great strength, 
and to be lit ted by nature with a capacity to 
go through wild scenes and high deeds. 
The seamen look upon her as their guardian 
angel ; the inhabitants of Pillau venerate 
her as something holy ; the municipality has 
conferred on her the freedom of the town ; 
and several governments, including the Prus- 
sian, have sent her medals of civil merit. 

Between the Island of Sky and the main- 
land of Applecross is the rocky Island of 
Rona. At its north-west extremity is a fa- 
mous refuge for vessels in danger or distress, 
called the " Muckle Harbor. " At the lower 
end of this harbor stands a lonely cottage, 
called the " Lighthouse," from the fact that 
the widow uniformly keeps a lamp burning 
in her little window at night. By keeping 
this light and the entrance of the harbor 
open, a strange vessel may enter with the 
greatest safety. Here in her solitude, night 
8* 



90 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

after night, for months and years, has she 
trimmed her lamp, fearful that some frail 
bark might perish through her neglect ; and 
for all her watching, and expense for oil, she 
receives no manner of remuneration. Pure 
humanity prompts her devotion and deeds : 
nor is she happy, unless in some way she is 
ministering to the comfort of the weather- 
beaten mariners. She was led to this course 
of life in her younger days, by witnessing her 
seafaring husband struggle and perish in the 
waves. 



COLERIDGE IN JACKET AND TKOUSERS. 

When the war was raging between Eng- 
land and France, Mr.' Coleridge was in 
the Mediterranean, and anxious to reach 
his wife and children in England. With 
this in view he left Malta, landed in Sicily, 
whence he passed over to the south of 
Italy, and journeyed on towards Rome. 
In the "Eternal city" he attracted some 



OEMS OF HUMANITY. 01 

attention as an English "man of letters." 
In particular. Cardinal Fesch, and more 
remarkable still, Jerome Bonaparte, then 
a resident at Rome, showed him special 
attentions, — the latter very generously advis- 
ing him, that if he, as an Englishman, had 
either written or said anything against his 
brother Napoleon, he had better leave Italy 
as soon as possible. Mr. Coleridge lost no 
time in taking the hint, and quitted Rome in 
the suite of Cardinal Fesch. He proceeded 
to Leghorn, where he hoped rather than ex- 
pected to get a passage home in a tieutral 
vessel. In this he was disappointed. To 
obtain a passport was impossible. He had 
rendered himself obnoxious to the " great 
Captain " by some political papers ; conse- 
quently his situation was daily increasingly 
insecure, and even perilous, looking to con- 
finement and death in an Italian prison. 

In constant dread of apprehension by Tus- 
can emissaries or French spies, and oppressed 
with a despair of never seeing his family 



92 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

and friends again, he wandered out one 
morning to view some ruins in the neighbor- 
hood of the city. Here he met a stranger, 
who for ought he knew was musing over 
similar calamities, and towards whom his 
heart at once warmed. A conversation of 
mutual interest ensued, when the stranger — 
he proved to be an American Captain, whose 
ship was then in the harbor and on the point 
of sailing for England — thus addressed him : 
" Pray, young man, who are you ? 77 " I am," 
replied Mr. Coleridge, " an unfortunate Eng- 
lishman, with a wife and family at home ; 
but I am afraid that I shall never see them 
more. I have no passport, nor means of 
escape ; and to increase my sorrow, I am in 
daily dread of being thrown into jail, when 
those I love will not have the last pleasure 
of knowing that I am dead. 77 The Captain 7 s 
heart was touched. He had a wife and fam- 
ily at a distance. " My young man, 77 said he, 
"what is your name? 77 "Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge, 77 was the reply. " Well, 77 answered 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. 93 

the Captain, " you meet me at this place to- 
morrow morning exactly at ten o'clock." 

They parted, — the Captain to mature his 
arrangements, and Mr. Coleridge to muse on 
the probabilities of good growing out of the 
occurrences of the morning. 

A little more than prompt to the appoint- 
ment next morning, Mr. Coleridge was on 
the ground, but no Captain was there. His 
suspense, however, was short, as the Captain 
soon hove in sight, and cheerily hailed him, 
" I've got your passport ! h " How ! what ! " 
said Mr. Coleridge, almost overpowered by 
his feelings. "Ask me no questions," re- 
turned the Captain ; " you are my steicard, 
and you shall sail away with me to-morrow 
morning." ' He gave him his address, adding, 
" You come to my lodgings to-morrow early, 
when I will provide you with & jacket and 
trousers, and you shall follow me to the ship 
with a basket of vegetables. Thus accoutred 
the next morning, he followed the Captain 
to the ship, and in three hours sailed out 



94 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

of Leghorn harbor for " home, sweet home," 
in England. The Captain finished his hu- 
mane ruse by refusing to receive anything 
from Mr. Coleridge for his passage. 



"THE HEART WAS TOO FULL." 

In 1849 Captains Kellet and McCluro 
parted in Behring's Straits ; the former to 
return to England via Cape Horn, and the 
latter to force his way, if possible, through 
the Polar Sea into the Atlantic. Pour years 
passed away in the horrible monotony of 
that frozen region, and the commencement 
of the fifth found him in the frozen prison 
of the Bay of Mercy. No hope of relief 
from anything human ! The morning of the 
6th of April, 1851, seemed desolate as ever ; 
but suddenly the cry overhead was heard, 
" A travelling party in sight ! " No one 
could believe it ; things were too bad for 
that, yet it might be possible. The cry was 
again raised, when the officers and men 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. 95 

tumbled out on deck in hurry-skurry order, 
and saw a man running towards them. 

In a subsequent private letter, Captain 
McClure thus describes the scene : u Imagine 
if you can a whole crew vegetating in a 
huge catacomb, supposing themselves cut off 
from the world, and not a civilized being 
within two thousand miles ; when suddenly 
an apparition is observed close to the vessel 
— one solitary stranger, (for his companions 
were hidden by the ice,) black as Erebus, 
approaching rapidly, occasionally showing 
gesticulations of friendship similar to the 
Esquimaux. My surprise — I may add dis- 
may — was beyond description ; I paused in 
my advance to meet him, doubting if he were 
not a denizen of the other world." 

To the questions by McClure, i; Who are 
you ? and where are you from ? n he stam- 
mered out, " Captain Kellett.'' 1 This was the 
more inexplicable to McClure as Kellet was 
the last person he had shaken hands with at 
Behring's Straits. 



96 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

" However, my surprise lasted but for a 
moment. The apparition was really found 
to be flesh and blood. To rush at and seize 
him by the hand was but the first gush of 
feeling ; language was denied — the heart was 
too full for the tongue to articulate. As this 
black stranger informed us that assistance 
was within one hundred and fifty miles, the 
crew.flew up the hatches, the sick forgot their 
maladies, the healthy their despondency. All 
was now life and delight ; in a moment the 
whole crew were changed. I may go on 
writing, but can never convey the most faint 
idea of the scene. I can only say, fancy the 
dead raised to life ; try to impress your mind 
with such a picture. I need say no more." 

It seems that Captain Kellett, intent on 
the rescue of his friend, had entered Baffin's 
Bay from the Atlantic, and penetrated as far as 
Melville island, whence he had sent the above 
exploring party. After eleven days 7 travel 
over the ice and snow, Captain McClure 
shared his friend's hospitality on board the 



GEMS OF HUMANITY. 97 

Resolute at Melville island. Captain Kellctt 
in a private letter thus describes their meet- 
ing : "This is really a red-letter day in our 
voyage, and should be kept as a holiday by 
our heirs and successors forever. At nine 
o'clock this day our look-out man announced 
a party coming. I cannot describe my feel- 
ings when told that Captain McClure was 
amongst them. I was not long in reaching 
him, and giving him many hearty shakes ; 
no purer were ever given by two men in this 
world. McClure looks well, but is half 
-tarved." 



'BUT SPARE, OH, SPARE MY HELPLESS 
CHILD ! " 

The ship " Waterloo " was wrecked in 
Table Bay, near Cape Town, August 27, 
1842; and of the three hundred and thirty 
souls on board, two hundred and fifty per- 
ished. Says an eye-witness, " Oh, it was a 
dreadful sight! There, within a stone's 
9 



98 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

throw, lay two or three hundred beings 
drowning before our eyes. One woman was 
holding on with one hand to a piece of 
plank ; with the other she held, pressed to 
her bosom, a little infant. Her cries were 
piteous. At last a sea came and washed the 
woman and little one off." 

" The tempest deepens! dark the cloud ! 
The howling blast is long and loud ! 
The vessel reels ! the foaming tide 
Is pouring through her yawning side ! 

" Lo ! on the deck a mother stands, 
Lifting to heaven her trembling hands ; 
1 Oh, God ! ' she cries, ' my infant save, 
And let me find a watery grave ! 
Oh ! let the wave roll o'er me wild, 
But spare, oh, spare my helpless child ! ' 
One last faint shriek dies on the distant shore, — 
The wave rolls over her ! she's seen no more ! " 



VII. 

Gems of Piety. 

(99) 




FAITH. 

SAILOR meeting another who was 
anxiously inquiring the way of sal- 
vation, thus addressed him : " It was 
just so with myself once ; I did not 
know what faitli was, or how to ob- 
tain it ; but I know now what it is, and I 
believe I possess it. But I do not know that 
I can tell you what it is, or how to get it. I 
can tell you what it is not : it is not knock- 
ing off swearing and drinking, and such like : 
it is not reading the Bible, nor praying, nor 
being good : it is none of these ; for even if 
they would answer for the time to come, 
there is the old score still, and how are you 
to get clear of that? It is not anything you 
have done or can do : it is only believing 
and trusting in what Christ has done ; it is 
forsaking your sins, and looking for their 
9* (101) 



102 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

pardon and the salvation of your soul, be- 
cause He died and shed His blood for sin ; 
and it is nothing else." 



BIBLE AUTHORITY. 

" The principal benefit I received from 
reading other books than the Bible," said 
James Haldane, " was, that they explained to 
me more fully those doctrines of which I was 
before satisfied, for I was too fond of my 
own opinions to read those books which op- 
posed them. I did, however, consider the 
Scripture as a certain authority. As soon 
as I found it against any of my opinions I 
readily gave them lip." 



"I WISH THAT ALL MY CREW WERE 
METHODISTS." 

On board the flag ship of a celebrated 
Commander, a complaint was made by his 
Captain against about two hundred of his 



GEMS OF PIETY. 103 

cre\\ r . The accusation was, that they were 
Methodists, and when in their watch below 
they were in the habit of reading the Bible, 
praying, and singing psalms and hymns. The 
Admiral ordered an inquiry, and after abun- 
dant proof that it was even so, asked, " What 
is the general conduct of those men on deck, 
— orderly, or disobedient, — cleanly, or the 
contrary ?" " Always orderly, obedient, and 
cleanly/ 7 was the reply. i; When the watch is 
called, do they linger, or are they ready ? " 
11 Always ready at the first call." " You have 
seen these men in battle, sir : do they stand 
to their guns, or shrink?" "They are the 
most intrepid men in the ship, my lord, and 
will die at their posts." " Let them alone, 
then," answered the Commodore ; " if Meth- 
odists are such men, I wish that all my crew 
were Methodists ! " 

AN APPROPRIATE DOXOLOGY. 
In 1829 the schooner Hannah and Susan, 



104 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

Captain Christopher Bailey, of Newbury port, 
went to pieces in a gale on Plum island. 
u The seas/ 7 said one of the sailors, "ran 
mountains high ; and each, as it passed with 
its foaming crest, threatened our little bark 
with instant destruction. About fifteen min- 
utes after we were headed for the shore, we 
struck ; and on the bosom of the next sea 
were borne almost high and dry on a sand 
beach. To our great joy we were all en- 
abled to get ashore, and on our knees gave 
thanks to Almighty God for deliverance. 
"We then united in singing the Doxology, — 

1 To God the Father, God the Son, 
And God the Spirit, three in one,' &c. 

It was in those awful moments when we saw 
instant death before us, that God gave me 
grace to rely on His Almighty arm ; and as 
I look back upon them, I am astonished that 
my mind could have been so perfectly calm, 
and my hope so big with immortality. Glory, 
glory to Him to whom all praise is due ! " 



(JEMS OF PIETY. 105 

"LOOK ALOFT." 

The celebrated Dr. Godman, of Phila- 
delphia, used to relate an incident which 
W2L8 of great practical value to him in the 
trying scenes of his after life. 

During a voyage at sea, when he was a 
young man, he observed a lad, who was also 
on his first voyage, sent aloft on duty, 
lie was out on a yard, looking down, 
and vainly trying to plant his feet on a 
swinging rope. As the rope flew from side 
to side furiously, it was evident the poor lad 
was getting discouraged, and dizzy, and rea- 
dy to fall, when the mate shouted at the top 
of his voice, " Look aloft ! look aloft ! you 
lubber." Looking aloft saved his life. Pie- 
ty will make the practical application. 



In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale 
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail — 
If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart - 
11 Look aloft," and be firm and fearless of heart. 



106 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

If the friend who embraced in prosperity's glow, 
With a smile for each joy, and a tear for each woe, 
Should betray thee when sorrows, like clouds, are arrayed, 
" Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade. 

Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine eye, 
Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, 
Then turn, and, through tears of repentant regret, 
" Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set. 

Should they who are dearest, — the son of thy heart — 
The wife of thy bosom, — in sorrow depart, 
" Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the tomb, 
To that soil where " affection is ever in bloom." 

And oh ! when Death comes, in terrors to cast 
His fears on the future, his pall on the past, 
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart, 
And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft," and depart! 



THE HARBOR FOUND. 

" Midway between my father's dwelling 
and the school-house," said a minister of the 
gospel, " lived an old, worn-out sailor. On a 
cold winter morning I frequently called to 
warm my fingers. He gave me a welcome 
reception, and entertained my wondering 
fancy with his tales of the sea. I became 



GEMS OF PIETY. 107 

quite attached to him, and the attachment 
was mutual. In the lapse of years the school- 
boy became a clergyman. Hearing that he 
was sick, I went immediately to see him. 
He was pondering the loss of his soul. 

Ml Oli,' said he, ' I am a poor old weather- 
beaten sailor, tossed about in the storm, and 
I can't find a harbor — I can't find a harbor. 
There is no mercy for such an old sinner. f 
1 Don't say that/ I replied; 'how do you 
know V And I took clown his old canvas- 
covered Bible, and began to read of Paul, of 
Peter, of David ; of the great mercies of the 
Lord to the chief of sinners. ' How/ said 
he, ' do you say that I can be saved V l Yes, 
if you will come to Christ, for He is able and 
willing to save the chief of sinners, if they 
repent and believe. 7 ' You are the first man 
that told me that/ he exclaimed, ' the first 
man that told me I could be saved. 7 

" While a beam of hope lighted up his deject- 
ed visage, I assured him that it was not too 
late for the returning prodigal. On my third 



108 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

visit I found the old mariner full of joy. He 
had found the harbor. He lived but a short 
time, and departed with a full assurance of 
leaving a stormy ocean for the haven of 
eternal rest." 



THE WAY TO CHEER THE LADS. 

In one hour after the heavy sea struck the 
vessel, she went down, leaving only four sea- 
men to tell the story of her fate. "We 
were now four of us in a small boat — only 
ten feet keel — left to the mercy of the winds 
and waves on a dark and stormy night, more 
than one hundred miles from the nearest 
land, without compass, or anything, except 
two oars, the deep-sea-line, a bucket, tin pan, 
hatchet, and a few biscuits in a small trunk. 
We made fast the line to the middle of one 
of the oars, and veered out about thirty 
fathoms, and, with the other oar plying 
at the stern, kept her head to the sea, — al- 
though it seemed to us impossible that we 



GEMS OF PIETY. 109 

could climb those watery hills. My faith, 
trust, and prayer were to Him who 'rides 

upon the stormy wind, and manages the . 

and my soul was soon elevated above common 
Tear. In order to cheer the lads that were 
with me, after repeating a part of the 107th 
Psalm, and other texts of Scripture, and 
reminding them of Jesus commanding the 
winds and the waves to be still, I sung the 
88th Hymn of Watts' — 'Life is the time to 
tin.' Lord. 91 About eleven o'clock, the 
next day, the fog scaled off a little, when, to 
our great joy, a schooner was within hail, 
and answered us immediately, hove to, and 
received us on board. w 



THE SABBATH, AND THE COLORED STEW- 
ARD'S PRAYER. 

The three decisive battles which ended the 
last war with Great Britain — at New Or- 
leans, Gen. Jackson commanding, on Lake 
Erie, Com. Perry commanding, and on Lake 
10 



110 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

Champlain, Com. Macdonough commanding, 
— were fought on the Sabbath. In each in- 
stance the British were the aggressors, and 
in each were signally defeated. There are 
those yet living who remember that much 
prayer, all over the land, was offered for the 
success of our arms ; and most fervent 
prayer in the vicinity of these bloody con- 
flicts. The Saratoga, Com. Macdonough's 
vessel, had a complement of 212 men, all 
told, including a Chaplain. But the Com- 
modore was so shocked with his morals, he 
never would call on him for any religious ser- 
vice whatever. Eight bells were striking in 
the American squadron, on the morning of 
Sept. 11th, 1814, when the upper sails of the 
English vessels were seen passing along the 
land, about to double Cumberland Head, and 
swing around into action. It was a critical 
moment ! the moment, as they were about 
to appeal to arms, to appeal to God. All 
hands were summoned to prayers. There was 
one man on board whom the Commodore had 



GEMS OF PIETY. 11 t 

sometimes called on to pray, and he was the 
man for this emergency. In two hours and 
a half, not a single English ensign out of 
sixteen or seventeen was flying in the Bay of 
Plattsburgh ! And the sublimest part wit- 
nessed in the whole scene, was the faith and 
energy of the colored stewards prayer ! 



HIS FATHER'S PRAYER FOUND IN THE 
OLD CHEST. 

The poet has truthfully sung, — 

" Though seed lie buried long in dust 
It sha'n't deceive the hope ;" — 

but has said nothing of prayer buried more 
than half a century at the bottom of an old 
oaken chest. Toward the end of the year 
1756, Captain M. K. married Miss Betsey D., 
daughter of Colonel D., then living on Indian 
River near the Capes of Delaware. II 
was then sailing out of Philadelphia in 1 
European trade. In August, the following 
year, being outward bound, as he passed 



112 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

Cape Henlopen, he was within a few miles 
of his beloved wife at her father's residence. 
A thousand tender associations and prayer- 
ful thoughts were awakened. He retired to 
his cabin, and covered, in a fine hand, nearly 
a whole sheet of paper with a most earnest 
and affectionate prayer for his wife and un- 
born child. It was dated " Off the mouth 
of Indian River, August 22, 1757." On his 
passage to Europe the Captain died ; and 
on the return of the ship his old oaken chest, 
containing books, manuscripts, sea -charts, 
mathematical instruments, &c, was forwarded 
to his wife. She opened it with a sad heart ; 
and, seeing nothing of any value, except as 
mementos of the departed, she locked it 
again, and had it stowed away to be given to 
her son — which had in the mean time been 
born — when he should become a man. She 
named her son after his father, gave him a 
good education, and hoped he might also 
inherit his father's virtues. But in this she 
was doomed to disappointment. In 1775 ? 



GEMS OF PIETY. 1 18 

at the age of eighteen years, ho enlisted in 
the regiment of Delatvare Blues, and man 

Boston. He remained in the army till 
the close of the war. He was in the battles 
at White Plains. Germantown, and Mon- 
mouth, under Washington. He then went 
to the South, where lie was dangerously 
wounded, and taken prisoner on the spot 
where the brave Baron de Kalb was mur- 
dered begging for quarter. After awhile he 
was exchanged, and joined the army under 
General Green, fought at the Eutaw Springs, 
and at Cambahee Ferry, where the brave 
Col. Laurens fell. 

At the close of the war he returned to his 
mother's residence, thoroughly inoculated 
with all the vices of the camp, and decidedly 
a bad man. If he had won a valuable char- 
acter for bravery in the field, he had lost in 
morals all that ennobles manhood. He was 
now twenty-five years old ; and, with the 
means furnished from his father's estate, he 
ministered without restraint to all his baser 
10* 



114 STORIES OF THE OCEAN, 

appetites. He seldom visited his mother, 
now respectably married the second time, 
lest he should feel the keen edge of her faith- 
ful rebukes. At length she was removed by- 
death ; and when on her death-bed gave him 
the key of his father's chest, exhorting him to 
keep it and its contents for his father's sake 
and hers. He faithfully promised, put the 
key in his pocket, and had the chest removed 
to his own residence and stowed away in 
the garret, where it remained unopened sev- 
eral years. Having been told by his mother 
that his father was a religious man, he was 
afraid to examine it lest he should find there 
some book or paper to harass his feelings. 
In 1814, when he was fifty-seven years old, he 
suddenly took a notion to examine that old 
chest. It was brought down, and, with some 
difficulty with the rusty lock, opened. The 
first thing which turned up was " Christian 
Philosophy," with his father's name written 
on the title-page. Then other books, maps, 
charts, and instruments, which he piled up 



OEMS OP IMICTV. 1 15 

on the table. At the bottom of the chest be 
found a neatly-folded paper, endorsed on its 

back — - The Prayers of M. K. for blessings 
on his wife and child. August 23, 17;j7.'' 
He opened it and read, till the whole scene 
and circumstances under which it was writ- 
ten were vividly before him : for his mother 
had often led him, when a boy, to the beach, 
and pointed in the direction where was last 
seen the flowing canvas which bore his 
father away, never to return. He folded up 
the prayer, put it into the quadrant case, 
tumbled the contents back into the chest, 
locked it, and determined never to unlock it 
again during his life. But that prayer had 
sent a dagger to his soul. It tormented him 
by day, and haunted his troubled imagina- 
tion by night. His distress so increased, that 
the woman with whom he was sinfully living 
demanded to know what ailed him. This 
sent home another dagger. He looked at her 
wildly, exclaiming. u I cannot tell you" This 
only increased her solicitude. " Leave me 



116 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

alone awhile/ 7 said he, "to think." As she 
left the room, casting an anxious look back, 
all the sins of his life rose up before him in 
terrible conflict with his guilty conscience. 
He called her back, and confessed that the 
cause of his distress was, his father's prayer 
found in the old chest. She thought him de- 
ranged, and sent for the neighbors, who 
thought the same till he unlocked the chest 
and produced the old prayer. From that 
time M. K. became an altered man. He 
married the woman with whom he was liv- 
ing, manumitted his slaves, united with the 
church of Christ, and lived and died a hum- 
ble, exemplary Christian. 

"CAME AS A LITTLE CHILD." 

Said Captain Brewer, giving an account 
of a revival on board his brig Louisa, at sea : 
" To some the Lord spoke peace while aloft 
on the yards, to others in their berths : some 
seemed to'hear an audible voice in the fore- 



GKMfl OF PIETY. 117 

castle in prayer : one thought lie saw the 
Saviour come to hie relief; and in a great 
variety of ways these men appear to have 
been im . convicted, and converted. 

Some in one way, and some in another ; but 
not one have we seen converted until he < 
as a little child, crying to his Father for 
mercy.'' 

•MY ANCHOR DOESN'T DRAG." 

Do you remember Captain William But- 
man? He is still affectionately remembered 
by numbers of his old neighbors in Rutland, 
Vermont ; and his face seems as radiant as 
when he found that his anchor held amidst 
the breakers of death. He commenced a 
seafaring life at the age of fourteen, and after 
plowing the ocean about twenty years, he 
retired to the western slope of the Green 
Mountains to plow the land. He died at 
Rutland. April 18, 183-1. About thr< 
before his death he gave decisive evidence 



118 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

of personal piety, and confessed Christ be- 
fore men. From that blessed day he made 
a straight wake for the haven of eternal 
rest — on the way doing good as he had op- 
portunity, especially to his brethren of the 
sea. As his end approached, his soul was 
full of peace. The Indian-ink anchor on his 
hand was but a faint emblem of the stronger 
anchor which held stedfast his soul. To the 
very last he could say, " My anchor doesn't 
drag ! " 

"WE AEE SAFE!" 

Years ago a homeward-bound vessel was 
overtaken by a terrible storm, which caused 
her to leak badly. Notwithstanding the 
efforts of all hands at the pumps, the vessel 
was gradually sinking. The mate, who had 
been a wild and wicked youth, was now in a 
serious, thoughtful mood, —walking fore and 
aft, and occasionally pulling out his watch as 
if anxious for the arrival of a particular 



GEM8 OF PIETY. 119 

hour. The Captain, approaching him silently 
and solemnly, Baid, "We are lost/ The 
•1 can't live much longer in such a gale." 
The mate paid little or no attention to him 
or his remark ; but took out his watch the 
oftener, till at last he gave a shout, and leap- 
ing, cried. " We are safe! We shall not — we 
l<>st! " The Captain replied, f< There 
is no possibility of escape — the leak gains 
upon us, and the gale increases/' With an 
scarcely conceivable, the mate re- 
plied, " It is my father's hour of prayer ! 
He is now imploring God in my behalf ! 
The vessel can never sink while my father's 
prayers are going up to heaven ! " 

This exclamation gave new energy to the 
efforts of the sailors, and all laying to with 
their might were able to keep the vessel afloat 
till the gale abated, when they made sail and 
arrived safe in port. 



120 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

THE CABIN-BOY'S PRAYER. 

Captain F., of the brig H., belonging to a 
port in Mass., returned from the sea in the 
fall of 1837. On going into the country to 
spend a few days with his friends, he took 
along his favorite cabin-boy. There being a 
revival of religion in the place, and his pious 
friends feeling a deep interest in him, invited 
him to attend their frequent meetings. The 
cabin-boy soon became a hopeful disciple of 
Jesus Christ, and expressed great anxiety for 
the spiritual welfare of his beloved Captain. 
The Captain at last became so deeply im- 
pressed with his lost condition as a sinner, 
that he accepted the usual Methodist invita- 
tion to the altar for prayers. Down upon his 
knees by his side dropped his faithful cabin- 
boy, and gave vent to his feelings in the fol- 
lowing prayer : " Lord, if thou hast but 
one blessing to give, bestow that on my 
poor Captain : and if thou hasn't any, take 
mine away and give him that." So disinter- 



GEM8 OV PIETY. 121 

ested and so tender a petition molted others 

dea tlie Captain to tears. lie obtained 

the blessing asked for, while the cabin-boy 

was not sensible of any diminution of his own. 



THE PIKATE AND THE DOVE. 

Audubon, in his Ornithological Biography, 
relates the following : " A man who was once 
a pirate assured me that several times, while at 
certain wells dug in the burning, shelly sands 
of a well-known Key, the soft and melancholy 
cry of the doves awoke in his breast feelings 
which had long slumbered, melted his heart 
to repentance, and caused him to linger at 
the spot in a state of mind which he only, 
who compares the wretchedness of guilt 
within him with the happiness of former in- 
nocence, can truly feel. He said he never left 
the place without increased fears of futurity, 
ciated as he was with a band of the most 
desperate villains that ever annoyed the nav- 
igation of the Florida coasts. So deeply 
11 



122 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

moved was he by the notes of any bird, and 
especially by those of a dove, the only sooth- 
ing sounds he ever heard during his life of 
horrors, that through these plaintive notes, 
and them alone, he was induced to escape from 
his vessel, and return to a family deploring 
his absence. 

After paying a parting visit to those wells, 
and listening once more to the cooings of the 
Zenaida dove, he poured out his soul in sup- 
plications for mercy, and became what one 
has said to be ' the noblest work of God/ 
— an honest man." 



"A BIT OF A STORY." 

" Sir, I want to tell you a bit of a story. 
You see before you a man who has been a 
sailor forty years, a drunkard thirty-five, and 
a lost and ruined sinner sixty. I have sailed 
several times round the earth, and visited al- 
most every port where a vessel is to be found, 
but no one, either at home or abroad, has 



GEMS OF PIETY. 123 

said to me personally, You hurt a soul to be 

lor lust. Oh, sir, I forgot my duty to 
my family, and to my God. But four years 
ago, while in the Pacific, surrounded by pro- 
fane and wicked shipmates, I got hold of a 
little tract that alarmed me. I resolved 
that I would drink no more grog. One of 
my messmates had a Bible : I read that. 
For a long, long time I was dark. My sor- 
rows increased. It seemed that every sin I 
'had committed came up before me. But 
when I had given up all for lost, God, for 
Christ's sake, spake peace to my soul. I 
have been a different man ever since — I pos- 
sess peace of mind and joy." 



THE PLACE OF PRAYER. 

" Peter went to the house-top to pray, and 
our Lord to the mountain ; but where did you 
find a place to pray ?" inquired a friend of :i 
sailor recently returned from a whaling voy- 



124 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

age. " Where there is a heart to pray," he 
replied, " there is no difficulty about the 
place : I usually went to the mast-head." 



" RETIREMENT IN A HAT." 

A sailor, who was in the battle of Nava- 
rino, on being asked the state of his mind 
when he saw the Turkish fleet, and heard the 
drum beat to quarters as they were enter- 
ing the Bay, replied, " All I wanted wa£ 
some retired spot for prayer, that I might 
commend my soul to God for a few moments 
just before I went into action." " You would 
find that a difficulty, indeed, in a man-of-war, 
after orders were given to clear away for 
action." ; ' True, but there's retirement in a 
hat." " In a hat ! I don't understand you." 
" Perhaps not — and 111 explain myself. We 
were sailing into the Bay ; I thought there 
was a moment of leisure, and, leaning over 
the bulk-head of the forecastle, I took off 
my hat, and, covering my face with it, se- 



[S OF PIETY. 125 

cretly breathed out a prayer : ' Lord, into 
thy hands I commend myspirit,for thou hast 

redeemed me, Lord God of truth ; thou 
hast the >f life and deatli ; all events 

are at thy command ; I leave myself entire- 
ly at thy 1 : and if I should be killed, 
take care of my family, save my soul, and 
i ve me up into thy glory, Lord, through 
rist, my Lord and Saviour. Amen.' 
You Bee, sir, there is retirement in a hat." 



WHICH DIED THE RICHEST? 

A few years ago the British ship Britan- 
nia was wrecked nearing the island Fernan- 
do Ooronha, about 100 leagues from the 
i of Brazil. She had on board a con- 
signment of several barrels of Spanish dol- 
lar-. In the hope of saving at least a part 
of them, they were got on the main deck. 
But as .-he began rapidly to go to pieces this 
object was abandoned. Just before the last 
11* 



126 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

boat pushed off, a midshipman was sent back 
to ascertain if there might be still anybody 
left on board. On gaining the main deck, 
his surprise was great to see one of the men 
there. This fellow had broken open several 
of the casks, and spread the dollars out on 
a table-cloth on deck, in the midst of which 
he was seated with his hatchet in his hand. 
" Halloa, you, sir," shouted the middy, " what 
are you doing there ? The ship is fast going 
to pieces." " The ship may go," was the re- 
ply ; " I have lived a poor rascal all my life, 
and am resolved to die rich." The remon- 
strances of the midshipman he answered only 
by a flourish of his hatchet, and was left to 
his fate — to " die rich." 

A reverse of this is found in the case 
of Thomas Henderson, who died at the New 
York Hospital, Feb. 20, 1841. The night he 
died, he called his pious shipmate, who had 
been his faithful nurse, to his bedside, and 
thanked him for his kindness. " That cloth- 
ing, if it will fit you, I want you to have. 



GEMS OP PIETY. 127 

And my hat— try it on— keep that. The pea- 
jacket, and the pantaloons, I wish yon to put 
in my chest to be sent to my father for my 
brothers." ITis attention was here arrested 
by a groao from a sick man near by, and 
lie said to the nurse, " I am well— take care 
of that poor soul f and then to the sick 
man,— 44 Ts it well with you ? Is your soul 
safe? 1^ your peace made with God?" 
Then exhorting him to trust in Jesus Christ, 
he added. 4i I feel I am dying, but the ever- 
lasting arms are under me. Oh, Jesns ! Look 
to Him ! look to Him \" Thus he spent his 
dying breath, and passed away : rich in 
faith, rich in dying grace, and rich in hope 
of a glorious immortality. 



"LET US HAVE OLD HUNDREDTH." 

When the Bethel Flag was (irst raised— if 
was in the spring of 1817, on board the W- 
enora, Captain Reed of South Shields, then 

lying in the Thames— there was much bitter 



128 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

opposition. The praying seamen were 
charged with all sorts of wicked designs. 

One evening, just as their prayer-meeting 
had commenced, a police boat came along- 
side, took possession of the quarter-deck, 
and guarded the companion-way that none 
of the prisoners should escape. The 
benediction being pronounced, a loud voice 
was heard from the quarter-deck, — "Be- 
low there \" " Halloa !" cried one of the 
tars in the steerage. " Where is the lead- 
er of your meeting?" He soon came up 
on deck ; to whom the officer said, " WelL 
sir, are these your meetings ?" " Yes, sir, 
the meetings we hold ; we meet to return 
thanks to God for bringing us safe to port, 
while others pray for protection on their pas- 
sage." u Well, sir, these meetings have been 
differently represented to our office : it has 
been said you meet together for treason and 
conspiracy againt your sovereign." One of 
the pious sailors cried out — " God bless the 
King ! Master, tell him we won't hurt a 



B 



PIETY. 129 

hair ° n bul well pray for him. Ma- 

ter. - Well, rir, if these are your meetii 

go on. and may the Lord prosper you." 
"Amen! and Amen!" cried the - 
(he old hundredth:' 



-THEY IfUBT BE PRAYING FOR US 
ASH( »EK" 

One day as a vessel owned in one of the 
ports of Cape Cod was homeward bound, 
and making a splendid voyage, the mate re- 
marked to the Captain. " They must be pray- 
ing for us on shore." « Why, what makes 
you think so ? " " Because we are making 
such a voyage." "It may be so," replied 
the Captain, seriously. After a while the 
same thought was repeated. ' - Certainly, 
our folks must be praying for us." " Well. 
then, is it not time we were praying for our- 
selves?" • !r is, replied the' mate: and 
a they went into the cabin. the 

Word of God and' to call upon His name. 



130 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

Before they reached home both were cherish- 
ing new-born hopes and joys : both will ever 
believe that prayer can reach those who are 
" far, far at sea ; " and will ever bless God 
for leading them to seek and find His mercy 
there. 

"A STRAIGHT WAKE." 

A seaman, giving an account of his con- 
version in the Baldwin Place prayer-meeting, 
Boston, said, " I have been like a vessel in a 
storm on a lee-shore ; but, now that by the 
grace of God I have weathered the point of 
danger, and have plenty of sea room, I in- 
tend to make a straight wake J 7 

"NOT ASHAMED OF HIS FLAG." 

" I always," said a pious Captain, " carry 
a Bethel Flag to sea with me ; and I believe 
I was the first who hoisted it beyond the 
North Cape of Europe. I always make a 
point of hoisting it as I enter a harbor, at 



GEMS OF PIETY. 131 

home or abroad, and sail into port with the 
flag flying. This answers a double purpose : 
it lets all the Captains know who and what 
] am. In the first place, it causes those who 
are ungodly men to give me a wide berth, as 
sheer off and let me alone. Baying ' lie is 
a Methodist.' In the next place, it induces 
those who love the Lord Jesus Christ to 
flock around me, and give me a welcome 
reception." 

"A THRONE OF GRACE IN THE FIELD." 

In the field, back of the Snug Harbor, on 
Ptaten Island, there used to be, in a quiet 
nook, a stump : — maybe it is there yet. 
This stump was the favorite resort of one of 
the pious inmates of that institution, and was 
called by him his throne of grace. One of 
his shipmates. " Old Ben/' was blind in more 
senses than one ; and every fair morning 
might be seen, hanging on his arm, on their 
way to this throne of grace in the field. 



132 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

Here they knelt and prayed together till the 
blind could see, and discern spiritual things 
as they are spiritually discerned, — and sub- 
sequently, till "old Ben" was too feeble to 
go out, and heard a voice calling him aloft 
to see as he is seen. Much as that sailor 
loved the home of his childhood, and the ship 
in which he many years sailed, he used to 
say, no spot on earth was so dear to him as 
that throne of grace in the field. 



"I WANT A CHART." 

One day I was standing in the shop of my 
master, behind the counter, when an old 
sailor entered, and, looking seriously at me, 
accosted me thus : " Young man, I want a 
chart. 77 " Yes, sir, 77 1 replied, " you shall have 
one ; do you want St. George 7 s, the Bay of Bis- 
cay, or round Ireland, or the Mediterranean, 
sir ? 77 " Stay, young man, stay ! 77 said the 
old sailor ; " youth is always in a hurry. I 



IS OF PIETY. 183 

want a chart, but I don't want either one 

have mentioned : tliev are u- i me. 

I wanl a chart which Bhall guide me to 

for I liave lost my old one. Now, 
you do you understand me 7 " 

I immediately conjectured that lie wanted 
a Bible : BO I took down a few and showed 
them to him, and he selected one — evidently 
mucli pleased at my readiness to serve him — 
inquired the price, and paid the money. 

"HELP NOW, LORD, OR I PERISH." 

Captain Samuel Elliott, at an anniversary 
of the American Seamen's Friend Society, 
nn being asked to give an account of his 
ligious experience at sea, said : "It was on 
tliis wise. I had a job over the bows, and 
ue what particular about the work, I 
concluded to do it myself. There wj 
sea rolling, but I had the jib hauled down, 
and over the bows I got. There I had 
worked some ten minal ing asunder 

12 



134 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

two thick ropes, when suddenly I cast my 
eyes upward at the rope ; — ' My God ! J I ex- 
claimed, ' I have been hanging by an old 
yarn that would not hold an infant. 7 My 
hair stood erect. I jumped on deck and 
laughed away the fright. I was out that 
night at the first watch, and while walking 
the deck, the thought flashed upon my mind, 
* If the rope-yarn had broken, where would 
you have been ? 7 and I answered aloud, u in 
hell, to all intents and purposes.' I dropped 
instantly upon my knees, and cried aloud 
for mercy. For seven days my condition 
was truly awful. The Captain thought I 
was crazy. I was praying every opportunity 
I could find, but found no rest. My old Bi- 
ble, that had long lain at the bottom of my 
chest, was now drawn forth and read w r ith 
intense interest. At length, one day, while 
lying upon a yard-arm, and thinking my case 
hopeless, I bethought me to try again. I 
poured out my soul to God in the most ear- 
nest entreaties for grace to help. ' Help 



GEMS OF PIETY. 135 

now, Lord, or I perish.* And God answered 
the petition. I descended to the deck a new 
man in Christ Jesus, and the happiness of 

that moment has never departed from me 
unto this hour." 



"THE DOLPHINS AND THE LORD'S DAY." 

Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, records 
the following, which he says is " attested be- 
yond all contradiction." 

" On the 10th of October in this present 
year, 1697, there arrived at New Haven a 
sloop of about 50 tons, whereof Mr. William 
Trowbridge is Master ; the vessel belonged 
unto New Haven ; the persons on board 
were seven, and seventeen long weeks had 
they now spent since they came from their 
port, which was Fayal. By so unusually 
tedious a passage a terrible famine unavoid- 
ably came upon them ; and for the five last 
weeks of the voyage they were so destitute 
of all food, that through faintness they would 



136 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

have chosen death rather than life. But they 
were a praying and a pious company ; and 
when these poor men cried unto the Lord, He 
heard and saved them. God sent His dolphins 
to attend 'em ; and of these they caught still 
one every day, which was enough to serve 
? em ; only on Saturday's they still catch'd a 
couple ; and on the Lord's days they could 
catch none at all. With all possible skill 
and care they could not supply themselves 
with the fish in any other number or order ; 
and, indeed, with a holy blush at last they 
left off trying to do any thing on the LoroVs 
days, when they were so well supplied on the 
Saturdays. Thus the Lord kept feeding a 
company who put their trust in Him, as He 
did His Israel with His manna ; and thus 
they continued till they came to that change 
of water where they used to leave the vessels. 
Then they so strangely surrendered them- 
selves that the company took twenty-seven 
of 'em ; which not only sufficed them till they 
came ashore, but also some of 'em were 



GEMS OF PIETY. 187 

brought ashore dry'd, aa a monument of the 

"NOT ASHAMED TO SHOW THEIR COLORS." 

About the year 1S4T the ship Siberia sailed 
from Boston for India. One of the crew, 
a that two of his shipmates were from 
the Baptist Bethel church in New York, de- 
termined on having rare fun in ridiculing 
and worrying them on the voyage. He 
thought that piety in a sailor was too ludi- 
crous a thing to be gravely endured ; and 
that he was the one to lead off the fun. As 
yet he had not seen them. Soon after he 
came on board, he remarked jocosely to a 
sailor, a stranger, " Well, I learn that there 
are a couple of pious fellows in our crew \ n 
The stranger looked up at him with a meek, 
but earnest -lance, and said, " Yes, sir, and 
1 hope I am one of them." Then, before he 
could say anything, a third sailor standing 
by, added, " And I hope I am the other.'' 
12* 



138 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

The scorner was crestfallen ; and after- 
wards speaking of it, said, " My sport was 
all over. Surely, said I to myself, these men 
are Christians — the genuine kind ; they are 
not ashamed nor afraid to show their colors." 
He was soon led to seek an interest in Christ ; 
when the three established a prayer-meeting 
in the forecastle, and before they reached 
India six more of their shipmates were hope- 
fully converted. Moreover, while their ship 
stopped at the island of Mauritius, sailors 
from other vessels happening to be in port 
attended their meetings, and several more 
conversions took place. 



"DO YOU PKAY?" 

As one of the Chaplains of the American 
Seamen's Friend Society was on the passage 
to his station in the West Indies, he observed 
among the crew of the Cornelia a small boy. 
A severe storm came on, and one day, some 
of the rigging at the mast-head getting foul, 



GEMS OF PIETY. 139 

it was necessary that Borne one go aloft and 
rectify it. It was a perilous job. The Chap- 
lain, standing near the mate, heard him order 
that boy aloft to do it. The boy lifted his 
cap, glanced at the swinging mast, the boil- 
ing sea, the steady, determined countenance 
of the mate, and then, hesitating a moment in 
silence, rushed across the deck, and pitched 
down into the forecastle. He was gone, per- 
haps, two minutes, when he returned, laid his 
hands upon the ratlines and went up with a 
will. The Chaplain followed him till his 
eye moistened and his head grew dizzy, when 
he turned and remonstrated with the mate : 
11 Why did you send up that boy ? He will 
never come down alive. Why did you send 
him ?" "I did it," replied the mate, " to save 
life. We've sometimes lost a man overboard, 
but never a boy. See, how he holds like a 
squirrel ! He is more careful. He'll come 
down safe, I h-o-p-e." 

Again the Chaplain looked till the tear 
dimmed his eye, and he was compelled to 



140 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

turn away, every moment expecting to catch 
a glimpse of his last fall. 

In some fifteen or twenty minutes, having 
finished the job, he came down, and, straight- 
ening himself up, as if conscious of having 
performed a manly act, he walked forward 
with a smile on his countenance. 

In the course of the day the Chaplain took 
occasion to speak to him, and ask him why 
he hesitated when ordered aloft ; and why 
he went down into the forecastle, " I went 
to pray, sir," said the boy. " Do you' pray ? " 
" Yes, sir ; I thought I might not come down 
alive, and I went to commit my soul to God." 
" Where did you learn to pray ? " " At home 
— in New Londom, sir ; my mother wanted 
me to go to the Sunday-school, and my teacher 
urged me to pray to God to keep me, and I 
do." "What was that in your jacket pock- 
et ? " " My Testament, which my teacher 
gave me. I thought if I did perish, I would 
have the word of God close to my heart." 



OEMS OF PIETY. 141 

THE WAV TO GOD ILLUSTRATED. 

A man-of-war's man. wishing to illustrate 
the fact that sinners air deserters from God, 
having abandoned His service, — that justice 
is in pursuit, having set a price upon their 
souls, — vet that forgiveness is offered on 
condition of their return, their humble ac- 
knowledgment, their faith in His word, and 
the voluntary surrender of themselves to Him, 
— said, " My brethren, I once served in the 
American navy, under Captain Porter. He 
was a severe officer, and, as I thought, ill- 
treated his men. So, upon a favorable oppor- 
tunity, I, with several others, ran away. I 
deserted the navy, and concealed myself in 
Boston and vicinity for two years. During 
this time a reward of two hundred dollars a 
head was offered for deserters. I, however, 
successfully escaped detection. At the end 
of two years the war of 1812 broke out with 
England. The government was greatly in 
want of men for the navy. Accordingly they 



142 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

issued proposals of mercy to all deserters. 
They publicly proclaimed, that if those who 
had deserted from the navy would return, 
they would be received, and nothing would 
be said concerning their desertion. That is, 
if they would go and deliver themselves up 
to the government, they would be pardoned. 
I saw these proposals, and, believing them to 
be offered in good faith, I went down to the 
navy office, confessed that I was a deserter, 
and offered to reenlist. I was at once re- 
ceived, and nothing was ever said to me 
about my desertion." 

"I SHALL SEE YOU OYER THERE." 

"Twenty -six years," says the seamen's 
Chaplain, at Rio de Janeiro, " had the good 
old negro man floated on the billows, but 
feared no danger. Many a time did I visit 
him, during the three weeks the barque in 
which he sailed was in this harbor, and lis- 
tened to his truly edifying, evangelical con- 



GEM8 OF PIETY. 1 \?> 

versation. He had no confidence in himself; 
but Christ strengthening him, he could do 

all I Just before the vessel to which 

2 1 left, I went on board to Bay 

[. After some conversation we parted, 

but when I was about a stone's throw from 

the barque, he shouted out to me, ' Good-bye, 

1 Ovi r where? 9 
1 inquired. * Why. to be .-are, on the other 
side of Jordan ! ' Blessed old man ! When 
he has finished the voyage of this life, he will 
land safely on Canaan's happy shore, 

k Where the saints of all ages in harmony meet, 
Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet.' " 



DIVINE AND HUMAN AGENCY. 

Rev. S. 0. Damon, Chaplain to seamen at 
Honolulu, was conversing with a sailor one 
day, when the following dialogue ensued : 

" Suppose you let me know what induced 
you to change your mind on religious sub- 
jects. w 



144 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

" I have a shipmate who is a religious sort 
of a man, and we often have a talk together. 
He brought out some books which he gave 
me to read." 

" What was the particular book which 
had the most influence over your mind ? " 

" ' Baxter's Call ;' I read it over and over 
— some passages over a hundred times. My 
head was all confused. I began to pray, and 
continued praying, and e'er long I felt dif- 
ferent. The light came, and I have been 
made altogether another man." 

" But how did you finally break away from 
your former habits and associates ? " 

" I made an effort, and the Lord hove me 
through" 

THE SEAMAN'S CONSOLATION. 

The following transcript is from the fly- 
leaf of his Bible. " This Bible was present- 
ed to me by Mr. Raikes at the town of Hert- 
ford, January, 1781, as a reward for my 



QBMfl OF PIETY. 145 

punctual attendance at the Sunday-school, 
and good behavior when there. And after 
being my companion fifty-three years — forty- 
one of which I spent in the sea-service, 
daring which time I was in forty-five en- 
iments, received thirteen wounds, was 
three times shipwrecked, once burnt out, 
twice capsized in a boat, and had fevers of 
different sorts fifteen times — this Bible was 
my consolation, and was newly bound for me 
by James Bishop, of Edinburgh, on the 26th 
of October, 1834, the day I completed the 
sixtieth year of my age ; as witness my 
hand. 77 

PRAYER ANSWERED. 

In 1746 a French armament, consisting of 
forty ships of war, under the command of 
Duke d'Anville, sailed from Chebucto in 
Nova Scotia, with the view of destroying 
New England. Ordinarily the force was 
sufficient to render that destruction certain. 
13 



146 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

The pious fathers in Boston and vicinity, ap- 
prised of their danger, and feeling that their 
only safety was in God, appointed a season 
of fasting and prayer, to be observed in all 
their churches. The Eev. Mr. Prince offi- 
ciated in his own pulpit, in the old South 
Church, on that day, and, while praying most 
fervently to God to avert the dread calami- 
ty, a sudden gust of wind arose — the day till 
now had been perfectly clear and calm — so 
violent as to cause a loud clattering of the 
windows. 

The Rev. Pastor paused in his prayer, and, 
looking round upon the congregation with a 
countenance animated by hope, resumed, and 
with great devotional ardor supplicated the 
Almighty to cause that wind to scatter the 
fleet, disappoint the expectations of the ene- 
my, and save the country from conquest and 
popery. 

A tempest ensued, in which the greater 
part of the French fleet was wrecked on the 
coast of Nova Scotia. The Duke d'Anville, 



GffiMS OF PIETY. M7 

the principal, and also the second in com- 
mand, both committed suicide ; many died 
with disease, and thousands were consig 
to a watery grave. The few that remained 
returned to France dispirited, and the enter- 
prise was abandoned, never to be resumed. 



A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 

( 1 aptain John Clark, of Philadelphia, was 
no fatalist. Spending a few weeks in that 
city and in his family, in 1831, he related to 
me some of the incidents of his seafaring 
life. u One night," said he, " I was at sea 
in command of a small vessel. The night 
was cold, dark and stormy. My helmsman 
was lashed on to prevent his being washed 
overboard by the fury of the tempest. Go- 
ing forward on some errand, and the sea sud- 
denly rising to sweep my deck, I was com- 
pelled to let him suffer a long watch unre- 
lieved. The sea was occasionally dashing 



148 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

over us when I made the attempt, thinking 
I could reach the mast before the first wave, 
and the helm before the next. But when 
perhaps half way, a tremendous sea knocked 
me overboard ! None but God knew it. To 
cry for help amidst the roaring of the tem- 
pest was in vain. I gave up all hope of life, 
but prompted by instinct I spread my hands 
to swim. Presently my hand struck some- 
thing. I found it to be a rope. The next 
moment it straightened my arm, and then 
relaxed. What it could mean I could not 
tell, till another straightening and relaxing 
reminded me of a rope made fast at one end 
of the rigging, and hung there for any need- 
ful purpose, and now, knocked off by the 
dashing waves, was in my hand ! Hold of 
this, hope revived within me, and I drew my- 
self with all the care I could command — 
fearful it would snap — towards the vessel. 
Presently she broached to a little, when a 
heavy wave lifted and laid me on the deck ! 
I grasped the mast and was safe!" Here 



GEMS OF PIETY. 149 

the Captain burst into tears ; but present- 
ly resuming his story added : " Now, some 
may say that it was an accident that threw 
me overboard ; and others, that it was a mere 
chance I got hold of that dragging rope ; 
and others, that it was very good luck that 
thus lifted and laid me on the deck. But there 
was neither accident, chance, nor luck about 
it. It was the special providence of God 
that put me into the sea ; that put the rope 
into my hands ; that thus laid me on the 
deck ; and that blessed the scenes of that 
night to the awakening and salvation of my 
soul." 

"LET GO THE ANCHOR" 

Every art has its technical terms, none of 
which are more beautiful or expressive than 
those connected with navigating the sea. A 
pious sailor, about to die, on being asked how 
lie felt, cheerily replied, " Land in sight/" 
As he grew weaker, and was evidently very 
13* 



150 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

near his end, the question was repeated, when 
he answered, " Just rounding the cape into the 
harbor!" A little while after, in reply to 
the question, " Well, how is it with you now?" 
with a joyous smile he whispered out his last 
words, " Let go the anchor V 9 



"WHAT I IsTEEDED." 

" I read," said a sailor greatly distressed 
about his spiritual condition and prospects 
" I read the third chapter of John, and there 
I saw what I needed. / must be born again. 
I read on and came to the 16th verse : ' God 
so loved the world that He gave His only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life/ 
I was struck by those beautiful words. Does 
that include me ? Yes, I thought, whosoever 
means me ; I will venture on His love. I 
tried to give God my heart ; and there, in that 
midnight hour, far away on the billows, I cast 



GEMS OF PIETT. i 5 I 

my poor, guilty soul on His mercy, and while 
pleading this precious word, I felt peace and 
comfort within mo." 



" HE MET ME AT THE WHEEL." 

A Swedish sailor, in relating his experi- 
ence of the divine mercy at sea, said, " My 
heart was sick and sore. I knew not what 
to do. I had no one to guide me. What 
was to become of me ? One night, as I was 
standing at the wheel, I bethought me of 
Christ, and my heart turned to Him for help, 
and, with my very first thought of Him, He 
met me at the wheel. ' Come to me, ye heavy 
laden ; come to me : I cast none out. I am 
meek and lowly of heart. Learn of me ; 
take my yoke — it is easy. Take my burden 
— my grace shall make it light.' 

" There at the wheel, in the dark and 
solemn hour, the Saviour showed Himself to 
me. I love Him because He first loved me. 



152 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

I cannot speak your language well. But 
Christ understands me, and I understand 
Him : and ever since I met Him at the wheel 
— poor sinner's Friend — I live very close to 
Him." 



" HOLD THERE ! THAT IS JUST WHAT I 
WANT." 

James Duboice, a young sailor, was on 
board a whale ship in the South Atlantic, 
homejvard bound. The last cask of oil had 
been stowed. Duboice stood on a cask near 
the main hatchway, when the vessel rolled 
deeply to leeward, and a water cask, breaking 
from its lashings at the weather rail, suddenly 
rolled against him, jamming his legs above 
the knees into jelly. He was carried to his 
berth in the steerage, and made as comfort- 
able as possible. " That night," said one .of 
his shipmates, " as I sat by his berth and 
watched with him, he was constantly calling 
1 Mother ! mother ! ' Oh, it was heart-rend- 



GEMS OF PIETY. 153 

ing to hear him in his piteous ravings call- 
ing ' Mother ! mother ! ' and then he would 
weep like a child because she came not. 
After he became calm, he bade me go to his 
chest and bring me the Bible given him by 
his mother. 

•• • Now,' said he, 'read to me. 7 

• ' Where shall I read ? ' 

Where it tells how to get ready for 
heaven/ 

•• I felt bewildered, and knew not where to 
read, but opening the book at random, my 
eye fell on the fifty-first Psalm ; and I read 
to him till I came to the tenth verse : ; Cre- 
ate in me a clean heart, God, and renew a 
right spirit within me.' 

" ' Hold there ! that is just what I want/ 
said he. ' Now, how shall I get it ? f 

u ' Pray God to give it to you for Jesus' 
sake,' I suggested. 

•• ' Oli. yea : Jesus is the Saviour. Shipmate, 
it is an awful thing to die, and I have got to 
go. Oh, if mother were here to tell me 



154 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

how to get ready ! ' and he trembled with 
earnestness. After a short pause, during 
which he seemed to be in deep thought, he 
said : 

" Do you know of any place where it is 
said that such sinners as I can be saved ? ' I 
quoted 1 Tim. 1 : 15, — 'This is a faithful 
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
sinners, of whom I am chief. 7 f Oh, ship- 
mate/ said he, ' that is good. Can you think 
of any more ? ' I quoted Heb. 7 : 25, — ' He 
is able to save them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth 
to make intercession for them.' 

" ' That's plain. Now, if I only knew how 
to come to God.' 

" ' Come, like a child to its father/ I sug- 
gested. 

11 ' How's that ? 

" ' As the child feels that his father can help 
him in danger, so are you to feel God can 
help you now. And as the child trusts his 



GEMS OF PIETY. 155 

father by Seeing to him, so you must trust 
Jting yourself upon Him.' 

lit- lay a little time engaged in earnest 
pleadings with God, as was evident from 
few words I overheard. Then the tears 
n to run down his face ; his eyes opened, 
and a bright smile played like a sunbeam 
over his features. 'He forgives me, and I 
shall be saved/ he said, with a voice like the 
sound of a flute for sweetness. The day 
dawned ; then the sun arose in regal splen- 
dor on the ocean. I held his hand in mine 
and felt the death-thrill ; then he murmured, 
• He's come, he's come.' 

" ■ Who has come ? ' said I. 

" ' Jesus/ he whispered, and fell asleep.' 7 



VIII. 



Gems of Principle, 

14 

(157) 




REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY. 

SAILOR, employed on board a 
steam vessel in the port of New 
York, conscientiously refused to work 
in taking in or unloading goods on 
the Sabbath. The Captain offered 
an increase of wages to induce him to work, 
saying, " We have no Sabbath in our busi- 
ness." But the sailor, refusing to work, was 
discharged, and went to Europe, where he 
soon learned, through a newspaper, that the 
steamer which knew " no Sabbath' 7 had been 
blown up, and several lives had been lost. 



"GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE." 

When the Turkish ship was blown up, 
near Scio, the brig Fanny, Capt. Rich, of 
Maiden, found the third lieutenant and an- 

(159) 



160 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

other officer on the wreck of the vessel, picked 
them up, and carried them on board a Seventy- 
four. After he had delivered them to the 
commander, the Turk asked the American cap- 
tain how much money he required for having 
saved his officers. The captain replied, " Sir, 
I ask nothing ; I have acted like a Christian." 
" Then," said the Turk, " I shall pray to 
Mahomet for you." "And I shall pray my 
God to inspire you to act as a Christian, 
also. l Go thou and do likewise/ " rejoined the 
American. 

RETURNED IN BALLAST. 

A few years ago the Captain of a brig 
from the State of Maine was at St. Croix, 
and was there offered one thousand dollars 
to bring home a cargo of rum, but refused — 
preferring to return in ballast. 

This statement was at the time published 
in several newspapers, and by many persons 
doubted ; whereupon it was thus endorsed by 



GEMS OF PRINCIPLE. 1G1 

the Editors of the Sailors' Magazine " We 
have the pleasure to state that we have seen 
the Captain referred to, and conversed with 
him on the subject ; — that instead of being a 
cargo of rum, it was a cargo of rum and 
sugar. The sugar he offered to take, but the 
rum he would not. And that instead of one 
thousand dollars, a full freight would have 
amounted to twelve hundred dollars ; and 
that on his return his owners were perfectly 
satisfied. " 

THE SABBATH REMEMBERED. 

On board an American whale ship, resolu- 
tions to abstain from taking whales, and 
from all unnecessary work on the Sabbath 
having been adopted, the very next Sabbath 
several whales were seen playing about the 
ship. " We remembered," says one of the 
men, " that we had taken very little sperm 
oil, and that these monsters within our reach 
were worth from $2000 to $3000 eacli ; that 
14* 



162 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

we, at least some of us, had families to pro- 
vide for, and that a storm might come up in 
the night and take the bread from our chil- 
dren's mouths. And again, the interesting 
question would come up, Did not God send 
these providentially to-day for our benefit ? 
The good spirit of our God was with us, and 
we were enabled, by grace, to keep our 
solemn pledge. And in twenty-two months 
we came home to the United States with the 
grace of God in our hearts, and a full cargo 
of whale and sperm oil, and some thousand 
pounds of bone." 



"WHY NOT." 

Hearing that a ship lying in the port of 
New York wanted a crew, several seamen, 
who had self-respect enough to ship them- 
selves rather than be sold by a notary at a 
dollar a head, went on board. Just at that 
moment, something having upset the Cap- 
tain's temper, he was swearing most pro- 



GEMS OF PRINCIPLE. 163 

Cutely. After he had worked off his steam, 
he turned to them, saying, " My lads, do you 
want a ship ? " " Yes, sir, we came on l)oard 
for that purpose. 77 Liking their appearance, 
he stated the terms of the voyage, the good 
points of his ship, <fcc, and urged their ac- 
ceptance with the question, " Will you go ? " 
" No/ 7 they replied, " we choose not. 77 "Why 
not ? n " Because we will not go with a man 
who swears so ! 77 



" MUST PRACTICE AS WELL AS PREACH." 

The Chaplain of a little English squadron 
in the Mediterranean was wont to preach 
alternately on board all the vessels of the 
squadron but one. The Captain of that was 
an irreligious, profane man, who wanted ' no 
Methodist parson to pilot him to heaven, 7 
and improved every opportunity to annoy 
him. Being of a violent temper he also in- 
sulted the Commodore, who was on the point 



164 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

of sending him home. Hearing of his in- 
tention the Chaplain waited on the Commo- 
dore, saying he had come to ask a particular 
favor. 

"It shall be granted," said the Commo- 
dore ; "I am always happy to oblige you. 
What is it?" 

" That you will overlook the conduct of 
Captain S." 

" Nay, nay ; you can't be serious. Is he 
not your greatest enemy ? and I believe the 
only man in the fleet who does not wish to 
see you on board his ship ? " 

" That is the very reason why I ask the 
favor, Commodore : I must practise as well 
as preach." 

" Well, well, it is an odd whim ; but if, on 
reflection, I can grant your request without 
prejudice to His Majesty's Service, I will 
do it." 

The next day the Chaplain renewed his 
petition. 
" Well," said he, "if Captain S. will make 



GEMS OF PRINCIPLE. 165 

a public apology, I will overlook his con- 
duct." 

The Chaplain instantly got into a boat 
and rowed to Captain S.'s ship. He met 
him with a frown on his countenance ; but 
when the Chaplain told him his errand, a 
tear stood in his eye, and taking him by the 
hand, he said, " Mr. , I really doit't un- 
derstand your religion, but I understand 
your conduct, and I thank you." 

The affair blew over, and he urged the 
Chaplain to preach on board his ship. 



NO SABBATH SALUTE. 

On the arrival of the U. S. frigate Cum- 
berland, Commodore Stringham, at the port 
of Athens, Greece, in July, 1852, he at once 
called on the French Admiral, and was hon- 
ored with the usual salute. The next day, 
which was the Sabbath, the Admiral returned 
the. visit, when the Commodore received him 



166 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

courteously, and informed him that as he 
neither visited nor saluted on the Sabbath, 
he would pay him the customary salute on 
the following morning. Accordingly, on 
Monday morning the Cumberland made the 
hills of Greece ring with booming honors to 
the Admiral. 



IX. 

Gems of Temperance. 

(167) 




THE LAST DUCK. 

HIPMATES ! short yarns, short ser- 
mons, and short ceremonies, are to 
my liking. I intend to have it so 
when Pm married ; and why shouldn't 
it be so in signing the Temperance 
Pledge? 

The Chinese, you know, are a curious 
people, — many of them making their dwell- 
ings in large boats on the rivers. One of 
them, more than half duck himself, got his 
living by keeping ducks. In the day-time 
the ducks were permitted to float about at 
their pleasure, but at night they were care- 
fully collected. As the night set in the 
keeper gave a whistle, when the ducks fled 
towards him with all possible speed, and 
were gathered in, in a minute. And how do 
you suppose he had educated his flock to 
15 (169) 



170 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

such promptness ? I will tell you : he always 
heat the last duck. Now bear a hand with 
me in signing that pledge, unless you mean 
to be the last duck ! 



COLD WATER PRINCIPLES. 

" I have," said the Captain, " never had 
any difficulty in being a cold water man. 
Everywhere, and in all circumstances — in 
the coldest weather and in the warmest cli- 
mate — I have found that it answers well and 
saves from many dangers. The ship's crew 
have invariably behaved well when tee-total- 
ers. I never knew insubordination on board 
a ship from drinking water ; but I have 
known many cases arising out of the use of 
intoxicating liquor. Upon one occasion the 
merchant that I traded for became a brewer. 
I wonder how drunkard-makers can look tee- 
totalers in the face ! And when about to 
sail, he said, ' Captain H., you must do like 



OEMS OF TEMPERANCE. 171 

other ships tliat sail for our company ; you 
must take liquors on board. 1 ' Sir/ said I, 
' the understanding with which I took com- 
mand of the ship was, that 1 should be allowed 
to sail upon temperance principles ; and I 
have only to say, that if you send any liquors 
on board you will please to send a captain to 
take charge of them. I will do no such 
thing. 7 I was allowed to sail upon my own 
principles. But when I was in London I re- 
ceived a letter, requesting me to encourage a 
particular public-house. I wrote immediately, 
saying I could not in any way encourage the 
sellers of intoxicating drinks ; and, if my em- 
ployers insisted upon it, they must send a 
captain to take charge of the ship. It was 
no trifling matter to me. I had a wife and 
family to support, and no prospect of another 
ship ; but I was resolved, by the help of God, 
that let the consequence be what it might, I 
would not sacrifice my principles. I was taken 
at my word ; a captain arrived to take my 
place ; and I never, in my life, gave up any- 



172 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

thing so freely. But, mark the good provi* 
dence of God! that very day I received a 
letter offering me a larger ship, and a new 
one. My ship was christened with a bottle 
of water, and sailed upon cold-water princi- 
ples." 



"A CURRENT TOWARDS THE CENTRE." 

A sailor, on being told that the Tuscavilla 
lake, in Florida, had become entirely drained 
of its water, and its bed was now dry ; also, 
that the Orange lake was fast disappear- 
ing, — the water in both lakes running in a 
current towards the centre, and then mys- 
teriously disappearing through some under- 
ground fissure, so as already to leave ten 
thousand acres of land dry, — replied : " I 
understand it all — that is just my experience. 
I, too, have been drained dry in an under- 
ground way : my head of its wits ; my purse 
of its cash ; my back of its clothes ; my soul 



OEMS OF TEMPERAM 173 

of its comfort, its self-res pect, its everything ; 
and all done by a current towards the cen 
But that was before I signed the Temperance 
Pledge." 



" ABSOLUTELY SMOTHERED." 

11 1 went home to my family ; it was earlier 
than usual. I took a seat, but said nothing. 
I observed a frown upon the face of my wife, 
as if she expected abuse as usual. But pres- 
ently the cloud cleared away ; and after ob- 
serving me some time she inquired, 'Hus- 
band, are you sick? What is the matter 
witft you ? ' ' No/ I said, < I'm not sick, and 
there is nothing the matter with me. I am 
sober. I have been to the Washington Tem- 
perance meeting, and have signed the pledge/ 
'Is it possible!' said she. 'Yes, it is true 
that I have signed the Washington pledge, 
and intend to stick to it as long as I live.' 
"In a moment," said the Pilot, "all the 
wife was up in her bosom. Her eyes were 



15* 



174 STORIES OF THE OCEAN. 

full of tears. She clasped me around the 
neck with her arms, and I thought she would 
have absolutely smothered me with her 
kisses." 



"A BOTTLE OF RUM." 

As the ship Tartar, Capt. Webber, for 
Canton, was about casting off in New York, 
a shipping notary brought on board from the 
Sailors' Home eight men to make up the 
complement of her crew. " What sort of 
men have you got there ? " asked the Captain. 
" Look at them," replied the notary, difect- 
ing his particular attention to a main-mast 
of a man, as a sample of the rest. " Look at 
them ! and there is one with a bottle of rum 
on his shoulder, — just such rum as they keep 
at the Sailors' Home ! " And, sure enough, 
there he stood with his shouldered treasure, 
himself and shipmates in high and sober glee, 
prepared — after living a few weeks on salt 



GEMS OF TEMPERANCE. 175 

beef — for a seasonable treat with a good 
bacon ham ! 

" COLD -WATER MEN." 

An American packet ship, homeward 
bound in the winter, experienced severe 
weather in crossing the Banks. Though 
sheeted with ice the noble ship behaved 
well, and her nobler men battled with the 
elements bravely. One day their kind Cap- 
tain called all hands aft, and, in consider- 
ation of their prompt and protracted per- 
formance of duty in the cold and wet, offered 
each a glass of brandy. Nineteen out of 
twenty-four respectfully touched their tar- 
paulins, and begged as cold-water men to be 
excused ! 



"WHAT KIND OF REFRESHMENT IS 
THAT?" 

When the ship Ocean Monarch was burn- 
ing in the Irish Channel, August 25th, 1848. 
13 



176 STORIES OP THE OCEAN. 

Captain Knight and crew of the ship New- 
World came to the rescue of her passengers 
and crew. Nobly and severely they toiled 
seven hours to save the perishing, — under 
orders from Captain Knight not to leave the 
wreck while one soul remained on board 
needing assistance. Mr. Baalham, the third 
officer of the New World, had charge of one 
of the boats engaged in conveying the pas- 
sengers from the burning ship to a Brazilian 
steamer which had come to anchor in the 
channel. Severe and protracted labor made 
them thirsty ; and several times, on safely 
landing their precious freight on board the 
steamer, they asked for water. At length 
half a dozen bottles of liquor were thrown 
into the boat for them, were which instantly 
thrown overboard, the noble seamen indig- 
nantly demanding, " What hind of refreshment 
is that for such men on such an occasion ? 
Water! water is what we want" 



/ 
GEMS OF TEMPERAVCB. 177 

USE OF LIQUOR. 

" They tell." Baid a sailor, " of the moderate 
use of liquor, of the temperate use of liquor, 
of the innocent use of liquor, of the harn 
use of liquor, of the generous and genteel use 
of liquor ; but after a long experience I can 
testify that the very best use is no use at all" 



Thus have we rambled — thus our casket filled, 
As the bee rambles o'er the fragrant field : 
We've breathed the ocean air, renewed our youth, 
And gleaned the germs of duty and of truth. 

Now, brave and wise—faithful, generous, true, 
Humane and grateful, pious, temperate too — 
Be it our joy, at every setting sun, 
To greet the ocean we must sail so soon. 



THE END* 



[ 



18 Aprl .18601 
11 ' =s£i 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Dec. 2007 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



